What light through yonder studio exec’s window breaks? Tis the dawn of a new version of William Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet, Verona, that Sony is currently looking to bundle onto its slate, like an apothecary stocking up on marketable potions.
Perhaps the original YA yarn, the Bard’s tragic romance has been revisited and reimagined so frequently that Tybalt is starting to get RSI in his sword arm, but producer Joe Roth (Alice In Wonderland, Oz The Great And Powerful) is overseeing something a little different this time. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Verona is conceived as a stylised take on the teen romance set in “a 300-style world”. Altogether now: “This… is… VERONA!”
Roth, who also has Alice In Wonderland and Snow White And The Huntsman sequels on his plate, is keeping further details under wraps but we do know that the script is a spec written by Neil Widener and Gavin James. Judging by the title, it won’t be straying nearly as far from Shakespeare’s original setting as Baz Luhrmann’s version, geographically-speaking at least.
More on this one as and when the man with the scrolls announces it from the battlements.