Carlo Carlei’s Romeo and Juliet: record on iTunes on Valentine’s Day Eve thanks to live tweets with Ed Westwick

The latest version of the romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare came out on DVD in the first days of February.

Filmed in Italy in Mantua, Verona and Lazio by Italian director Carlo Carlei, produced by English Swarovski Entrainment and written by Julian Fellows (Downton Abbey).

This new adaptation has the strength of a great international cast: English Damian Lewis (Homeland) as Lord Capulet, Natascha McElhone (The Other Boleyn Girl) as Lady Capulet, Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl) as Tybalt, Christian Cooke (Magic City) as Mercutio,  Douglas Booth (Noah) as Romeo, Tom Wisdom (Coronation Street) as Count Paris and Lesley Manville (Maleficent) as Nurse.

But also an extraordinary American Paul Giamatti (Saving Mr. Banks)  as Friar Laurence, Sweden  Stellan Skarsgård (Thor) as Prince of Verona, American Hailee Steinfeld (True Grint) as Juliet, Italian Laura Morante as Lady Montague (Hamlet, Richard III), American Tomas Arana (The Dark Knight Rises) as Lord Montague, Australian  Kodi Smit-McPhee (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) as Benvolio.

Both the critics and the box office was more than negatives with this movie that  tried to remain faithful to the original version but bringing changes in the language to introduce young people to Shakespeare’s work.

So, on the occasion of Valentine’s Day Eve, was organized (at 2AM Greenwich but  5PM Pacific / 8PM Eastern ) a tweet along with the actor most loved in the world, from Japan (where he has just finished shooting the thriller Last Flight click to see the trailer) to Los Angeles (where he is filming the comedy/horror  The Kitchen Sink that will be out in America on  January 9, 2015 and in UK on January 30, 2015): Ed Westwick (click to read our portrait).

During the chat Westwick talked about the beauty of shooting in Italy and the magnificence of those places,  about his hatred for the wig that was forced to wear (even if it worked well),  about how great was working with Hailee Steinfeld,…

But not only that, he commented the scenes while in every part of the world, hundreds of fans were watching on iTunes Movie Romeo and Juliet.

He suggested to English people to get some sleep and he wrote excuse notes for American students that didn’t do their homework.

A brilliant idea to slightly lift the fortunes of a film wrongly destined to sink.

                                  Photos by:  @romeoandjulietfilm