Lewis and seven more round out the cast.
The Carlo Carlei-directed adaptation of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ that has Hailee Steinfeld and Douglas Booth in the roles of the doomed lovers has cast ‘Homeland’ star Damian Lewis as Lord Capulet.
Rounding out the cast of the Julian Fellowes-scripted Shakespeare adaptation are Natascha McElhone (Lady Capulet), Stellan Skarsgard (Prince of Verona), Lesley Manville (The Nurse), Christian Cooke (Mercutio), Tomas Arana (Lord Montague), Laura Morante (Lady Montague) and Leon Vitali (Apothecary). They join a supporting cast that includes Kodi Smit-McPhee (Benvolio), Paul Giamatti (Friar Laurence), and Ed Westwick (Tybalt).
Currently in production, the Julian Fellowes-penned adaptation will stay “true to its original period setting” while aiming to draw “a younger, new-generation audience.”
The Oscar-winning screenwriter says, “it had been quite a long time since there had been a romantic, traditional rendition of the piece,” referencing Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 verion, “People have made Romeo since then — and some very good ones — but they were set in modern Ohio or whatever. This isn’t that. This is the romantic medieval love story as conceived by Shakespeare. We felt that really what we needed was just to make it slightly more accessible to today’s generation. That, I hope, is all we’ve done. My dream would be that you watch it and you think you’ve watched the whole thing written by Shakespeare.”