Romeo and Juliet - The Chorus

Shakespeare's play is strongly teleological, heading inexorably to a conclusion that is already strongly written and necessary. The lovers are dead in terms of our experience of the play even before we meet them. They're introduced to us only to further this fatalistic plot. It's a clever trick of Baz Lerman, one of the number of clever tricks in that 1996 film, to have the prologue delivered by a newscaster. We all already know Romeo and Juliet before we come to watch it.