After breaking out with a truly terrific performance in True Grit last year Hailee Steinfeld was obviously a young actress to watch, but her career path from there was a little tricky. Being a 14-year-old movie star is tough not just because child labor laws keep kids from working too much, but unless you go the teenybopper Miley Cyrus route, there just aren't that many good acting roles for actual teenagers. But Steinfeld, bless her, doesn't seem willing to compromise in finding a good part, and is about to take on one of the trickiest of them all, playing the titular doomed heroine in a new adaptation of Romeo & Juliet.

It's unclear right now who will be joining Steinfeld as the other half of the title pair, but Variety reports that Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick will be playing another key role, starring as Romeo's cousin Tybalt. As you probably know from English class or the other movie versions of this story or just living in culture in general, Tybalt kills Romeo's best friend Mercutio in a duel, setting the whole family feud into high gear. It's unclear exactly how traditional director Carlo Carlei will be making the film, though given that Gosford Park and The Young Victoria writer Julian Fellowes did the screenplay, I'd expect at least a little bit of a period flair. Shooting is happening in Italy this summer, so even though there's not yet a Romeo on board, don't expect that to be the cast for too long. Holly Hunter has also been cast, playing Juliet's nurse, who is one of the few significant adult characters in the original Shakespeare story.