1935 Film - Romeo & Juliet

1. Synopsis of your story: In creating this movie we wanted to take the classic Romeo & Juliet tale and give it a twist according to the times of the 30s.  Aware of the situation with the Great Depression, as well as strong dislike from the banks/social class struggle, we wanted to make our film a commentary on that.  Romeo is the son of a failing movie theatre owner, and unlike his father, represents the post-depression era and wants to move on with his life.  His father on the other hand, resents all wealth, especially bank owners, as they refused to give him money to repair his theatre and give him a chance to draw in customers.  Juliet is a young, wealthy girl who is very much indifferent about the whole situation and that leads to why she is able to fall in love with Romeo.  As a character foil, her father resents the poor, and thinks that movies are just a waste of time, only scum waste their time at the theatre, and refuses to give a loan to Romeo's dad.  The story proceeds to pit love against society and in the end is ultimately neither pro- or anti- bank rather just a tale of forbidden love.

2. Genre: We wanted to produce a Romantic-Drama, to pit society against love and see what it could bring in the box office.  We wanted to see how a big budget Romantic-Drama would fair.

3. Studio: We chose MGM as our studio, and we chose it for the simple reason that we wanted this to be a big-budget, highly anticipated film.  We needed a star powered crew for Romeo & Juliet as the 2 protagonists are the main focus, and no other studio gives us that opportunity like MGM does.

4. Cast and Crew: For this production, we chose all MGM affiliated personas, we didn't wan to overextend our reach and potentially have to trade up or buy the rights to any other person.  Our director is Victor Flemming, he's one of the best around at the time, and he knows how to handle big budget films.  Only a year before Romeo & Juliet, he directed Treasure Island, and as Eric said earlier, knows how to handle adapted screenplay and classic films.  In regards to actors, we casted Jeanette MacDonald as Juliet and Robert Montgomery as Romeo.  Both these performers have been in a number of big films and are just pleasing to look at on screen.
5. Hays Code & Technology: Obviously the original version of Romeo & Juliet has some scenes of extreme violence and sexuality, but in keeping politically correct with the time period, we have chosen to keep it clean and abide by the Hays Code, we will not show any scenes of the two lovers sleeping together and will avoid scenes of violence, by mentioning them through dialogue as if they're happening in parallel time. Instead of having both characters commit suicide, we will have them live happily ever after and while this does take a way from the shock factor of the film, it will help us give across a better moral message.  As a technological advancement, we've decided to use technicolor but only at the point where Romeo & Juliet make their first eye contact, to act as symbolism of the freedom love gives our characters.  We thought it'd make for a very interesting and unique touch.
6. Disagreements. For the most part, all 3 of us really liked the plot line and didn't disagree at all, but the big thing that bothered me was that I would've rather made it an indie film.  I wanted to use someone like United Artists and really make a glaring commentary on the situation between wealthy and poor as well as corruption and banks.  Also I thought it'd be interesting to attack the Hays Code and make a film more like the original, driven by sex, anger, violence.  Sure we wouldn't have gotten the vote from those big investors, but oh well.