The essence of the backdrop is of a story of "love that is doomed from the start", and no end of plays/films/TV shows have reworked the basic idea (Wuthering Heights, West Side Story, Lancelot & Guinevere., Paris & Helen (Troy), Gone With the Wind, House of Flying Daggers etc etc etc) So much so that it has become a bit of a cliche.
For a real modern twist, although this was similarly done in Brokeback Mountain, how about a male British soldier and a male Iraqi PoW? Or a modern day eco-warrior and a Whale-hunter? The possibilities are endless.