In a perfect world, theatregoers would have the pleasure of seeing their favorite shows on the silver screen. Sometimes it works out and a broader audience gets the opportunity to experience stories that they could only previously enjoy on Broadway. This was the case with Mamma Mia!, which began on the stage and ended up on the screen. With all of the excitement surrounding the scorching hot offerings of phenom Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of In the Heights and Hamilton, one would think film would be a natural progression.
Miranda’s works bring an energy and zest to the theatre that have drawn the praise of Jennifer Lopez, Joss Whedon and President Barack Obama. Cleverly fusing hip hop and salsa into the score of In the Heights and doubling back for more hip hop with a healthy splash of R&B for Hamilton, Miranda seems to be on a winning streak. But a Broadway smash does not guarantee that the musical will work on film.
In 2008, Manuel was excited when Universal Pictures acquired the film rights for his Tony Award-winning Best Musical, In the Heights. At the time, Miranda was expected to reprise the role of leading man, Usnavi, with Quiara Alegría Hudes, who wrote the Tony-nominated book, and was set to write the screen adaptation. But after concerns about signing on a big enough Latino star who would sell internationally, and an enormous $37 million dollar budget, the concept simply did not work as originally planned.
A lot of the reason the Universal version of Heights went away is that they were afraid they didn’t have a big enough Latino star to bankroll this movie. The people I dealt with at the studio who wanted to make this movie were very passionate about it. We had a very strong hand at the wheel with Kenny Ortega, who has made some of the great musical movie moments of all time, from Newsies to Dirty Dancing. But the bean counters were like, “Well, they don’t sell international.” You know this speech very well. That’s Hollywood being scared, and that’s everyone there having to answer to somebody else. And one of the things I learned was, the less money that’s involved, the more power you have.
The experience has now led to a revamp of the screenplay and a $15 million dollar budget. Manuel feels these changes are much better and should move the project forward.
In terms of a possible movie from his current hit Hamilton, Manuel says,
I have been amazed at the filmmakers who have expressed interest in adapting Hamilton. I would insist that the movie be exactly the same in terms of diversity. That conversation’s a ways off: It’s not happening anytime soon. What I learned from my go-round with In the Heights is that it’s tough to make a movie. In Hollywood, even the people in charge have people in charge.
For now, there is no clear answer of when, or if, either of these amazing productions will hit movie theaters. And that’s okay, because if it does happen, it’s quite clear that Manuel is determined not to lose the essence of either show just to sell movie tickets. That’s the kind of integrity that’s currently lacking in Hollywood. Even the venerable and iconic film maker Spike Lee agrees,
” I haven’t seen anything this DOPE on stage or screen in years…Game recognize game.”
The @SpikeLee in the 3rd row at the matinee…I felt like John Starks on that stage! Thanks maestro. #HamiltonPublic pic.twitter.com/MLyxdX2GR5
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) March 21, 2015
And that is exactly how we like it! For more information on In the Heights or Hamilton click here.
