Lin-Manuel Miranda's "In the Heights" tapped for movie adaptation
Lin-Manuel Miranda is riding a career high with record-breaking Broadway show "Hamilton," and now even his last Broadway musical, "In the Heights," is riding that wave.
The successful show, which won the 2008 Tony Award for best musical, was in development for a film adaptation at Universal Pictures until it fizzled in 2011. Now The Weinstein Co. wants to pick it up and make a movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
It's unclear if Miranda will star in the film, though he will certainly be heavily involved. The composer, rapper, actor and director, at 36, is now 10 years older than the musical's main character.
"In the Heights" also won a Grammy for best musical show album and ran on Broadway from 2008 to 2011 and went on a U.S. tour from 2009 to 2011. It is still touring around the world.
"As a kid from Queens, I've always loved bringing New York stories to film," Weinstein told THR. "'In the Heights' and Lin-Manuel brought Washington Heights to Broadway back in 2008 and in the process turned the theater world on its head. The movie musicals of the 1950s were incredible, but 'In The Heights' will revolutionize what movie audiences expect from the genre."
"In the Heights" is set in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan and is about a man who owns a bodega and has just inherited his grandmother's fortune; he struggles about whether or not he should close his store and move to the Dominican Republic.