Casting Call: Rosaline

In which we suggest who should star in the next big adaptation, remake, or historical film.

Apparently Shakespeare got it wrong. You see, Romeo was meant to be Rosaline’s man until that conniving harlot, Juliet, stole his heart. Apparently, little Juliet isn’t the tragic heroine we all thought but a vindictive, manipulative, unstable diva. Or so Rebecca Serle would have us believe.

Universal Pictures is currently adapting Serle’s young-adult novel, When You Were Mine, re-titled Rosaline, a revisionist take on the Bard’s classic. Swapping Elizabethan England for modern-day L.A. and The Globe for Beverly Hills High School, this will be Shakespeare meets 90210. As in Tom Stoppard’s postmodern masterpiece Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, the film will retell a familiar story from the perspective of a fringe character. In this case, Rosaline—that jilted girl you forgot about—whom Romeo dumped for Juliet.

The project has been bouncing around different studios for the past few years, but now it has a new home at Universal. With producer Shawn Levy attached Rosaline might actually go ahead. No doubt Universal will be hoping to capitalize on the recent success of YA franchises like Twilight and The Hunger Games. The new team behind the project all have experience with bittersweet rom-coms. Michael Sucsy, whose previous work includes The Vow, is set to direct, with 500 Days of Summer writing duo Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber adapting the screenplay.

Rumors have been circling for months about a possible cast, with everyone from Girls’ Allison Williams to Dave Franco reportedly attached. At this point it’s all speculation. So if casting is still up in the air, here are our suggestions.

Casting Call runs every Friday. For more, click here.