[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTGWNHa1wIQ]
We already knew that Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes likes to take audiences back into the intrigues of old-timey England—but now he’s taking it even further, with a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet. And he’s bringing a big-name cast with him, including Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit) and relative newcomer Douglas Booth as the star-crossed lovers, Paul Giamatti as Friar Laurence, Damian Lewis as Lord Capulet, Ed Westwick as Tybalt and Stellan Skarsgård as the Prince of Verona.
As the trailer makes clear, it’s a traditional version of the story, complete with Italian settings and period costumes and sword-play. It’s also a more direct adaptation of the story in terms of the actors’ ages: Steinfeld is only 16, beating out past film Juliets like Claire Danes and Olivia Hussey in terms of closeness to the character’s age of 13. As Entertainment Weekly reported in June, the original script’s racy nude scenes were removed so that the young actress would not appear unclothed.
(MORE: Downton Abbey Returns to America: Writer Julian Fellowes Tells All)
Romeo and Juliet is due to U.K. theaters on July 26, 2013. No U.S. release date has yet been set.