Rita Moreno’s insatiable (but also extremely justified) ability to hoover up all of Hollywood’s most prestigious honors continues this week, as Deadline reports that the EGOT-winner has signed on for a role in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming West Side Story remake. Moreno—who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ 1961 adaptation of the Broadway hit—will play a new(ish) character in Spielberg’s version: Valentina, an expanded version of Doc, the character who runs the neighborhood corner store in the original script. Given the level of prestige talent now associated with the picture, can the venerable EGOOT be far behind?
(Actually, if we want to get technical, Moreno is already an EEGGGOT; she’s won two Emmys over the years, plus a Golden Globe for West Side Story, in addition to her Tony and the Grammy she got for The Electric Company. Oh, and a lifetime achievement award from SAG. The woman is a multi-talented treasure, is our point.)
The One Day At A Time star responded to the news in a typically enthusiastic and delightful way, noting that, “Never in my wildest dreams did I see myself revisiting this seminal work. And to be asked by Steven Spielberg to participate is simply thrilling! Then to work together with the brilliant playwright, Tony Kushner—what a glorious stew! I am tingling!” Moreno will also serve as an executive producer on said glorious stew.
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Man, I don’t know. People (like me) who love the Robbins/Wise original I’m sure want to hear more about what Spielbergian angle Stevie’s going for that would make this remake interesting/necessary, even with Rita Moreno participating. Is he just trying to make us love Ansel Elgort (SPOILER: not possible).And if you look at Spielberg’s most recent movies, has there been much to write home about? Lincoln, yes, but what else? Munich from 13 years ago? I’m just not very optimistic.
I thought Bridge of Spies and The Post were both pretty good. But yeah, he’s made a lot of dreck in there over the last decade or so too.
Those definitely weren’t bad movies, and I happen to think there were good, but they weren’t impressive. I think remaking a movie that consistently makes it to the top 100 movies ever lists is a really bold move unless you something really compelling to say.
But ‘good’ for Spielberg is pretty rote. Since Munich, it feels like he’s fishing for just one more Oscar…I’m worried if he tries West Side Story, too…he’s got a very specific style and it didn’t work well when he tried making an epic comedy (1941)
They’re definitely both middlebrow. But it’s not like Spielberg has ever done much else. Except for lowbrow occasionally I suppose.
I love middlebrow. I consider masterpieces like Raiders, E.T., and Jurassic Park middlebrow.
I suppose those movies are technically middlebrow, but I feel like the term is used more to refer to movies with Oscar aspirations that deal with important social issues and/or dramatic circumstances but aren’t challenging at all. Green Book would be the perfect example. I actually enjoyed it, but it’s a movie made for my parents.
oh shit Ansel Punchface is playing Tony in this? Christ.
I’ve admired more than liked most of his recent movies. I feel like the last time he may have worked to his best abilities was what Munich? Catch Me If You Can? Minority Report? Though a Spielberg musical is a promising idea.
Oh! Can he bring back the color from Catch Me if You Can? Janusz Kaminski’s desaturated backlit gloom is…beautiful. But I want color!
She is so talented. Remember Oz?? She was great as the tough as nails Sister Peter Mary.
Remember Oz?? She was great as the tough as nails Sister Peter Mary. I’ve never seen Oz and thought this was a joke. Now I have to see it, because Rita Moreno can do no wrong.(Including a “hey, you guuuuuys…!” Electric Company shout-out in One Day at a Time. She’s amazing.)
She’s amazing, really great (and tough!) in Oz. A No-nonsense nun at a prison. Loved her in The Electric Company as a kid, too. Interested in this news, was just watching clips of West Side Story, wine-drunk late on Thanksgiving night, and Rita Moreno was just vivacious. I’m not confident in a new Spielberg adaptation, the original is so classic. But it’s nice and good they have invited Rita to be part of it.
I’m not too hopeful for a Spielberg version, but.. maybe it will avoid the problem the original movie had, at least to my daughter when she watched it, in the 90s – “wait. Those are GANGSTERS?”She’s a fan of musicals, it wasn’t that – it was just that none of those kids looked dangerous. They were all so clean-cut….
Yeah, but the rest of it , the musical numbers, were really fucking FABULOUS. And moving, and great. Dunno, maybe tell your daughter that there are 11,000 movies where gangsters are more realistic looking, and most of them suck? 😉 West Side Story is a gem, despite its flaws. I kind of love how the Anglo lead guy who was in love with Maria, sang about it memorably, just disappeared from showbiz forever.
Richard Beymer is still fairly active, if not quite as big as Moreno. He played Ben Horne on Twin Peaks this year.
Oh, that’s cool to know. Thank you. I don’t think there’s ever been a better song about what it feels like when you first fall in love than “Maria”.
Ps. Your daughter sounds like a really cool person, I love that she’s into musicals. Wish I had added that to my post, but hard to edit in Kinja suckverse.
I just found out that you CAN edit in Kinja, but there’s like a 15 minute time limit? Something like that. So I always try to make sure I write what I meen to right.
I am EGOOT!
Whoa, Language!
Moreno is an absolute treasure but a collaboration between her, maybe our greatest living playwright, and one of the great entertainers in cinema history should have me more excited.
Why would you start an article with a backhanded compliment to Rita Moreno. Give the compliment that she serves and move on.
My first memories of Rita Moreno were on The Electric Company. She opened every episode with a cry of “Hey, you guys!” And her performances were, well, electric.
Here she is opposite a not-yet-famous Morgan Freeman.
I loved Electric Company even though when it came out I was way too old for it. The entire cast was amazing, and the writing was smart and funny (I’m sorry, the very words “Fargo North, Decoder” still make me smile). I seem to recall that Morgan Freeman doesn’t like to talk about his time on the show, but I think that’s because he was having a particularly bad time in his life then. Drinking and drugging and stuff I guess. Not because of the show, I don’t think!Then years later he did the movie Street Smart, scaring the holy hell out of anyone who’d seen him on Electric Company (“which eye?!!”), and then LATER became the voice of any sensible person’s god…
For me Morgan Freeman will always be Easy Reader.
“Hey, I like another song, too, you know? You know this one – it’s called ‘While You Were Singing, I Got Stabbed In The Head By A Puerto Rican!’”
It’ll be a snap.
Well good for her, especially if her Executive Producer credit is more than honorary. Still, this sounds pretty problematic. I know the film had a huge impact on people of Spielberg’s generation and I don’t doubt he and Kushner think the project has relevance right now but it’s such a product of its time. Urban decay, juvenile delinquency and the rise in violent crime were some of the biggest issues of the fifties. Leonard Bernstein was a bona fide star at a time when classical music was regularly programmed on network television while Latin music was really popular and wide screen spectacles, particularly musicals, were redefining movie going. A remake can’t possibly rekindle that Zeitgeist. I can’t imagine them doing this as anything other than a period piece because a modern setting would necessitate a new score and lyrics and good luck with that bait and switch. I also haven’t seen anything visually dynamic in a Spielberg film in ages. At best, his films look indistinguishable from everything else out there. If anything, they look a bit more drab. I’d honestly love to see this succeed because I think there’s a huge appetite out there for a big, glorious musical but I can’t imagine how this will work. I’d rather see Spielberg film the Bernstein biography he’s been toying with although I suspect he’d whitewash the hell out of that.