 Tony Kushner, who previously worked with Spielberg on 2005's "Munich" and 2012's "Lincoln", revealed in a July 2017 interview he was writing the screenplay for the film, stating he would be leaving the musical numbers intact, and that the story would be more similar to the original musical than to the 1961 film.In a 2020 interview, Spielberg told "Vanity Fair", ""West Side Story" was actually the first piece of popular music our family ever allowed into the home.I... fell completely in love with it as a kid."