Ansel Elgort...is a Jet 'til his last dying day.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018 at 7:26AM by Nathaniel R
The first casting announcement has hit for Steven Spielberg's remake of West Side Story: Ansel Elgort will play doomed romantic Tony, a sensitive white boy who falls for Puerto Rican Maria in the mean streets of NYC. Tony can't quite extricate himself from his friendships with local gang The Jets in order to live happily ever after.
Elgort has definitely proved that he can move onscreen (Baby Driver was basically a musical without songs) and he sings, too. In fact he has already tried to start up a dual career as a singer and this might not be his only upcoming musical role as there was also talk of him headlining a Hans Christian Anderson bio earlier this year. But the West Side Story news will probably rankle a lot of people, if not me, because any remake of my favorite is suspect to begin with -- more after the jump...
Elgort's two music videos to date use a lot of vocal manipulation (as is the current style) so we don't know if he'll be able to do full justice to the Bernstein music. Still, it's already clear that they don't plan to dub the actors which will at least set apart the remake from the original in one obvious way (the other obvious way being the casting which won't be mixing white actors in brownface in with actual Latinos within The Sharks gang like the original did.
One of the main criticisms of Richard Beymer's Tony in the 1961 masterpiece, is that he didn't come across as intimidating or street-tough enough to sell Tony's exalted reputation among the gang he thinks he has left behind when the tragedy begins. At first glance, this will be a problem for Ansel as well. On the other hand maybe Elgort's tendency to POSE a lot -- well, perhaps his affectations might work in the role's favors since these kids are always trying to act out their toughness for each other and the rival gang.
What do you make of the casting?
Reader Comments (36)
Let's burn the movie set.
Basically fine with it. I do find it a little amusing that a popular and oft-revived stage musical that has been adapted to the screen once (and itself is largely adapted) is getting such strong "anti-remake" feelings. I don't think the 1961 version is so strong as to be untouchable, nor is it so weak that a poor remake will do it any harm The miscasting in the 1961 version alone opens it up for another version to do it a different kind of justice, thinking about it more.
Not feeling this remake, and not feeling this casting at all. Let's see who comes on board as Maria and Anita.
Ansel can be great, so this casting in and of itself is good news
Till
That's not the best voice I've ever heard. But then again pop music today isn't full of them.
Might as well turn it into a remake of Airport because this movie feels like a disaster.
NO. No maam no ham no cauliflower no pink lemonade no bitch. Out of all the white twinks out there in Hollywood and Spielberg chose the most bland one? Remaking this masterpiece was wrong at the first place and now this is gonna be a mess alright.
NO. No maam no ham no cauliflower no pink lemonade no bitch. Out of all the white twinks out there in Hollywood and Spielberg chose the most bland one? Remaking this masterpiece was wrong at the first place and now this is gonna be a mess alright.
This could be the year I start to tell Ansel Elgort and Taran Egerton apart!
Richard Beymer is really under-rated. Part of what keeps WSS fresh is his sweetness and sincere love for Maria. He’s smarter and more practical than the rest of the Jets, but still with an unshakeable idealism.
As for a “leader” of the Jets: wouldn’t you rather have someone who made you feel good about yourself, who looked at you as though he liked you and appreciated the good things about you, who made a happy group that felt they had a future? It isn’t the meanest and most ruthless person that makes a group functional.
As for poor Ansel: he comes across as self-absorbed and rather a dumb bunny. You don’t need a “name” for this part. There must be a thousand singers/dancers in the US who could do the part better. Ask a singer/dancer. I bet they can come up with a dozen possibilities in 5 seconds.
This is a colossal disaster waiting to happen. I am sending the worst vibes to this set.
My initial reaction was disappointment. I like Ansel Elgort a lot, but I was hoping Spielberg would tap an unknown, maybe someone with Broadway chops. As I thought about it some more I think he's a decent choice. The role doesn't require a lot of dancing even though he showed in Baby Driver that he can move. The singing remains to be seen, but Timothee Chalamet claimed that Elgort always beat him out for the lead roles in La Guardia High School's musical productions. More importantly Elgort has charisma, which a bland role like Tony desperately needs. Hopefully the rest of the cast will include performers with musical theatre bona fides. How about Gideon Glick or Ryan Steele as Riff?
PS. I know that Tony Kushner wrote the script for the new WSS, and he is an artist I respect and admire. I only hope that the rest of the production (casting, singing, dancing) is at the same level of artistry.
Okay, he won over with this clip. He could've been cast as Sky Masterson, but he could also play Marlon Brando playing Sky Masterson! Maybe we should've saved Ansel for the Guys and Dolls remake!
https://youtu.be/h9cW0y9TI0I?t=56s
Naya Rivera for Anita!
Needed a spicy white for this role, but I'll keep an open mind.
After Ready Player One, I'm wondering if Spielberg is slipping. That was a huge disappointment, and the soulnessess of it all hurt my heart. I don't like the idea of a WSS remake, but I'll wait and see when they announce the female leads. Ansel has lots of potential--he was surprisingly good in Baby Driver.
I don't have a problem with this - as mentioned above, the casting and dubbing of the 1961 version make it fair game for a remake as far as I'm concerned. I haven't seen enough from Elgort yet to have a strong opinion either way. Elgort seems like a fine match for the material; I have more doubts about whether Spielberg is the right fit.
I actually really tend to like Elgort, but I'm having a hard time imagining him in this role. Maybe it's just my overall issues with the project. Even with Kushner on board, I have no idea how Spielberg will approach this to make it different from the original. And if they aren't taking a radically different approach, then what's the point of remaking a Best Picture winner that still holds up?
Never saw the original to be outraged by the remake. What I'm most familiar with is the Marvin Gaye cover of Maria.
Dancing and singing is not the same thing as acting even though they are performative arts. That's why in musicals a lot of times are not particularly talented in these departments. I am not saying they can be bad but they don't need to be great. Sondheim's musicals many times have actors who aren't great in these fields because the acting is more important.
I agree with most here... this is a masterpiece that should be left alone. I was not a huge fan of Beymer in the role of Tony, but he was not as bad as history has claimed.
Absolutely no offense meant to Elgort (like him, think he's unfairly maligned), but there is literally no need for this remake (AT ALL), and so anyone being cast in it is a terrible idea because it shouldn't have any cast to begin with. Seriously, Spielberg, you can make any movie you want and you choose a remake that cannot possibly equal the predecessor?!? WHY?
I'm always shocked with the anger and nastiness people have towards remakes. If you love and respect the original it does absolutely nothing to ruin or tarnish that. Did Gus Van Sant's "Psycho" suck? A BIG ONE, yes. Does that tarnish the original in my mind at all? Absolutely not. Who cares? If it exposes new generations to the original and/or does something to expand on the material with modern film, I'm all for it. Just think of it as another stage production of it. People don't stop putting up shows just because people claim the "definitive" version of it has been done.
That all being said, I think Elgort is a safe, if a bit boring choice for this, but it remains to be seen. I'm hoping for the best and waiting until I see the rest of the casting before I jump to any sort of judgements. With Kushner and Speilberg involved, I'm optimistic and excited.
Honestly, I'd rather see Robert de Niro do West Side Story all by himself like he did in Analyze That. He was really good in singing those songs.
I'm also surprised that movie musicals are often considered to be a "no remake" zone. Plays and musicals have theatrical revivals and subsequent productions all the time, so why would any one film version be considered definitive? Yes, it would seem weird if there was something like another "Rent" film so soon, but for "West Side Story" it's been 50+ years. Why not give it a try?
The voice is impressive but the real question is: would Maria be interested in, let alone fall madly in love with his Tony? Ansel's lack of sex appeal (he comes off awkward and goofy) tells me no.
I wish Spielberg would just shut it down. If he wants to do a musical, why not revisit The Color Purple?
It's amazing how FEW musicals have been remade. There's "Showboat" and..... I think that's really it till now. (I'm not counting TV versions or non musical versions of films also filmed as musicals, etc.) As with most people, I'd rather have them remake something that was botched the first time round: "Pal Joey," "A Little Night Music," etc. Otherwise, there are so many great musicals that have never even been filmed once: "Candide," "Ragtime," "Sunday in the Park with George..." Come on!
This may be the most useless remake in film history
"It's amazing how FEW musicals have been remade. There's "Showboat" and..... I think that's really it till now."
A STAR IS BORN.
"This may be the most useless remake in film history"
You must have forgotten about the third "Ben-Hur!" Another prime contender is "Conan the Barbarian."
Not entirely opposed to a remake. "West Side Story" is no sacred cow that can never be improved upon, and the original was highly problematic in its own right. But this is going to live or die by its casting choices, not Spielberg or his technical crew. Ansel Elgort is as bland a slab of vanilla as they come, so nothing inspiring about the casting choice at all. Meh. All eyes now on who's cast as Maria and Anita, so here's hoping for the best.
West Side Story (1961) succeeds on its visual imagination, choreography, ghost singers and a few good songs—plus Moreno. It overachieves in a bunch of welcome but unnecessary ways.
It falls apart on virtually every aspect you'd use to judge a musical: Lead and other supporting performances, the book, sound editing, etc. Who taught those Jets how to lip sync?
That said, I think "Something's Coming" is one of the most visually gorgeous musical moments ever rendered onscreen. My guess is that Spielberg's version will be another mixed bag but I don't expect the highs to be as high.
The original film is hardly a masterpiece. It has several wonderful elements, but it's no masterpiece. I have no strong feelings about Elgort either way, but I thought Beymer was so weak in the original that I don't imagine it would be hard to improve upon that performance.
I saw a theatrical production of WSS here in Minneapolis at The Guthrie this summer and the guy playing Tony was *really* good: a wonderful singer with a convincingly hood-ish air about him, along with a sensitivity and no small amount of sex appeal. So he was pretty much perfect for the part. (In contrast the woman who played Maria was very one-note, a total disappointment). It shouldn't be so hard to cast Tony and it isn't for the theater, but apparently for film it is a Sisyphean task. Elgort is simply unappealing to me and certainly no great shakes as a singer. And trust me, those complex Sondheim songs are not easy to put across. I have no problem with a WSS remake but it surely deserves very thoughtful casting.
Jonathan: I was really thinking about remakes where the original song score is carried forward. The original Star is Born wasn't a Musical. The most recent two versions don't use the same songs. I guess Disney's Beauty and the Beast actually counts for my purposes.