It’s been two years since Hailee Steinfeld impressed audiences as Mattie Ross in the Coen Brothers’ adaptation of Charles Portis' novel, “True Grit.” Her breakout turn earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and a flurry of offers, including a role in next year’s blockbuster-to-be “Ender’s Game,” but her next big-screen appearance will be as Juliet in the newest, millennial-targeted, adaptation of the classic Shakespeare play, “Romeo & Juliet.”
And now the recently wrapped production has released a first look (via 24 Frames) of Steinfeld’s Juliet with her Romeo, Brit actor Douglas Booth. There isn’t really much to the photo, other than a shared look of longing between the two leads and top-notch costume work (the film was financed by Austrian design house Swarovski). The director, Carlo Carlei, is something of wild card, having mainly done made-for-TV movies in Italy, however the screenplay was written by the co-creator of “Downton Abbey,” Julian Fellowes, who has proven he can make period pieces feel vibrant and fun. There’s no North American distribution in place yet, but footage has been shown to potential buyers in Cannes. With it being positioned by producers as the “‘Romeo and Juliet’ for the Twilight Generation,” we’d wager that it’s only a matter of time until a deal is in place.
Steinfeld isn’t waiting around though, as Deadline is reporting that the teen is in negotiations to star in the adaptation of “Why We Broke Up” from the author of the “Lemony Snicket” series, Daniel Handler. The film, written by Handler and set to be directed by Beth McCarthy-Miller (episodes of “30 Rock” and “Saturday Night Live”), will follow Steinfeld as a high school sophomore and cinephile who falls hard for senior captain of the basketball team and gets caught up in their whirlwind romance.
