Spike Lee to direct hip-hop adaption of Shakespeare’s 'Romeo and Juliet'

American film director and producer Shelton Jackson, popularly known ‘Spike Lee’, will soon be directing the film adaptation of Ron Wimberly's graphic novel Prince of Cats. The novel is a hip hop take of Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet. According to reports, Lee is working on a rewrite of the script with Wimberly and screenwriter Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, a former editor of a hip-hop magazine.

A hip-hop adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic

The graphic novel Prince of Cats captures the aura of 1980s in ‘Da People’s Republic of Brooklyn’. At the same time it follows the emerging hip hop culture of  DJing, MCing, breakdancing, and graffiti writing, often called the street culture. The romantic-tragedy will have a new and fresh angle to the vantage of Tybalt, the anger of Juliet and the cousin who loves to duel. Lee said that his directorial will navigate the characters through the People's Republic of Brooklyn, where Tybalt and his Capulet brothers would be seen engaging in underground duelling with the rival Montagues. That world includes hip-hop essentials such as DJing, breakdancing and graffiti.

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The adaptation of Prince of Cats will be produced by Janet and Kate Zucker of Zucker Productions along with Legendary's Jon Silk. Straight Outta Compton actor Lakeith Stanfield was originally slated to star in the movie, but he is no longer attached to it.

READ: Shakespeare's Plays That Have Had Hollywood Adaptations

Hollywood adaptations of Romeo and Juliet

The Shakespearean play, Romeo and Juliet has been adapted on-screen countless times. However, one adaptation stood out among the rest. Starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Claire Danes, the movie used all the original dialogues of Shakespeare’s play, but is set in the modern-day world. In this play adaptation, Mercutio’s character is shown as an African-American, bisexual man whose love for Romeo seemed more real than what Shakespeare showed in the play. Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, is also made into a more energetic and gender-fluid character.

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