Steven Spielberg has found his male lead for the upcoming West Side Story remake, with Variety reporting that The Fault in Our Stars and Baby Driver star Ansel Elgort is set to portray the character of Tony.
Inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story centres on the rivalry between two teenage street gangs, the Jets and the Sharks, with Tony, a former member of the Jets and best friend of its leader Riff, falling in love with Maria, the sister of the Sharks’ leader Bernardo.
Spielberg has been circling a new adaptation of the 1957 stage musical for several years now, and is set to kick off production on the movie in the summer of 2019 before moving on to another long-gestating project in Indiana Jones 5.
Elgort recently received a Golden Globe nomination for his role in Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, and has the sci-fi drama Jonathan and an adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Goldfinch on his upcoming slate.
