The jury is most definitely out on whether anyone wants or cares about another film version of Romeo & Juliet, but we’re getting one anyway. Director Carlo Carlei must be hoping he can bring something fresh to the table, with the help of an adaptation by Gosford Park screenwriter, Julian Fellowes (or Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, as I suppose he should be called, since entering the peerage earlier this year).
For quite a while, the movie has had a Juliet in the form of breakout True Grit star Hailee Steinfeld, and she’s since been joined by the likes of Holly Hunter, Ed Westwick and Kodi Smit-McPhee in various other roles. However conspicuous by his absence has been a Romeo. Now they’ve got one, as Variety reports that after sifting through hundreds of young actors keen to take on the iconic part, they’ve plumped for Douglas Booth.
It’ll be his biggest role yet, having previously been seen in a couple of episodes of The Pillars Of The Earth and more recently opposite Matt ‘Doctor Who’ Smith in the one-off drama, Christopher And His Kind. It’s a big step up then to play one of Shakespeare’s greatest roles, especially when he’ll be one of the least recognisable faces in the cast (although, by the time movie comes out, he should have played Pip in a TV version of Great Expectations).
It’s also pretty certain that as much as his acting, his looks played a role in the casting, with the backers hoping his ridiculously square jaw and general dreamboat youthfulness, will have young girls swooning in the aisles. He does kind of look like one of the pictures in the window of Topman has come to life (in fact, with a history of modelling, he probably has been a picture in the window of Topman at some point).
Shooting on Romeo & Juliet starts this summer.