Upcoming Costume Movies and Intriguing New Projects: Romeo and Juliet, Summer in February and the Infernal Devices

I won't miss these upcoming movies  and  I really hope they will be good. They are all set in the past and this is something I've always been charmed by. Good stories set in the past... period movies! What's in this post? A new Romeo and Juliet whose set was near my home but  I unfortunately missed, Summer in February starring Dan Stevens and Dominic Cooper,  as well as a fantasy YA saga set in the Victorian Age - Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices - soon to be adapted for the silver screen . 

A new Romeo and Juliet  

Carlo Carlei directs a new Romeo and Juliet with a stellar cast including Hailee Steinfeld as Juliet and Douglas Booth as Romeo, along with Paul Giamatti (Friar Laurence), Damian Lewis (Lord Capulet), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Benvolio), Stellan Skarsgard (Prince Escalus) andEd Westwick. What can be said to present a new version of such a beloved classic? 
Very little indeed. Will Shakespeare star-crossed young lovers capture new audience with the lovely charms of the two new protagonists? I bet they will. The costumes and the locations are simply stunning. I think young people deserve  a more modern version, Zeffirelli's dates back to 1968 when even I was just a baby and Luhrman's modernization has always looked weird to me (and to the majority of my teenage students so far, who have always unexpectedly preferred the older adaptation).
By the way, I've only now discovered that this movie was partly shot in my little ancient town, more precisely the two Benedictine monasteries which make it popular among tourists visiting the area near Rome have been used as Friar Laurence's place. 
Romeo and Juliet 2013 will be released in October. Meanwhile have a look at the trailer! 
My stills from the trailer are HERE, HERE and HERE
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Summer in February 

Dominic Cooper, Emily Browning,  Dan Stevens and Hattie Morahan, star in this true tale of love, liberty and scandal.    The Newlyn School of artists flourished at the beginning of the 20th Century and the film focuses on the wild and bohemian Lamorna Group, which included Alfred Munnings and Laura and Harold Knight. The incendiary anti-Modernist Munnings, now regarded as one of Britain's most sought-after artists, is at the center of the complex love triangle, involving aspiring artist Florence Carter-Wood and Gilbert Evans, the land agent in charge of the Lamorna Valley estate. True - and deeply moving - the story is played out against the timeless beauty of the Cornish coast, in the approaching shadow of The Great War.
Directed by Christopher Menaul the movie will be released in June 2013 (UK). Ready for Dan Stevens back in costume after he left Downton Abbey? Have a look at the trailer. 

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Victorian fantasy saga to become film soon: The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare

Latest news about this from-book-to movie project are that Constantin Film is  moving forward on the prequel series The Infernal Devices, which is a spin-off of Cassandra Clare's popular novel series The Mortal  Instruments when City of Bones the film isn't in theatres until this August. That's surprising enough! 
While I've read all the books in The Mortal Instruments series published so far (the 6th and final installment will come out in March 2014) and I'm really curious to see the movie coming out next summer, I still haven't read the prequel series by Cassandra Clare but being set in the Victorian Age I doubt I'll resist long before reading the 3 Clockwork books.  Stephanie Sanditz, an actress with no real writing credits to her name, has already been hired to pen the screenplay for Infernal Devices. 

The Mortal Instruments -  City of Bones

The Mortal Instruments is a urban fantasy romance that follows young Clary Fray in contemporary New York. She discovers she is from a race of half angels half human beings known as Shadowhunters, who have been hunting demons for centuries.  The Infernal Devices series follows the ancestors of many characters from The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, and because some of the characters are immortal, they also overlap. The three novels in the Infernal Devices prequel series are  Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince and the just released but already best selling Clockwork Princess