Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story Wraps Production, Releases New BTS Images

Legendary director Stephen Spielberg is bringing the musical West Side Story to the big screen next December, marking the second time Stephen Sondheim’s beloved musical will have been adapted into a feature film. Spielberg and his crew have been hard at work filming his new take on the story all around New York, but that time has now come to an end. 20th Century Fox took to Twitter on Wednesday to announce production had wrapped on the project.

The studio posted a couple of photos to the social media site, showing Spielberg with the cast and crew over the course of production. One of the images showed a letter, written by Spielberg, to everyone who worked on the film and everyone around New York who came in contact with the project.

Stars Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Rita Moreno, and many others are featured in the photos. You find them and the full letter from Spielberg below!

“It’s 12:10AM, September 28, 2019, at Steiner Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yards in the great city of New York, and we’ve just concluded filming our version of West Side Story. This has been a journey without precedence: a joyful, stunningly moving, endlessly surprising encounter with the story and score of one of the world’s greatest musicals. My brilliantly talented, fiercely committed, generous and apparently inexhaustible cast and crew of hundreds have given our film everything the’ve got, and already I can say that the film we’ll be releasing on December 18, 2020 owes everything to them, as does its immensely grateful director.

“And while I’m on the subject of gratitude: On every day of the past four years during which we’ve been preparing, casting, imagining West Side Story, I and my team, cast and crew have been walking in the footsteps of four giants: Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents, Jerome Robbins and Stephen Sondheim’ insight, guidance and support, and for the openhearted support of Bernstein, Laurents and Robbins estates, I owe more than I can possibly express.

“We’ve filmed West Side Story all over New York, from Flatbush to Fort Tyron Park. The city lent us its beauty and its energy, and we drew deeply upon its grand, multicultural, multifaceted spirit. In addition, we spent three extraordinary weeks filming in Paterson, New Jersey. To the people of New York and Paterson, thanks not only for putting up with our trailers, tents, cranes and mid-street dance sequences; from the bottom of my heart, thanks for the warm welcomes we encountered everywhere, from pedestrians and policemen and neighborhoods and kids. We couldn’t have made our musical without you.”

Are you looking forward to Spielberg’s West Side Story? Let us know in the comments!

West Side Story is set to hit theaters on December 18, 2020.