Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s feature directorial debut has landed a big name. Andrew Garfield is on board to star in Miranda’s Netflix adaptation of Jonathan Larson‘s autobiographical Off Broadway show, tick, tick…BOOM! Larson also wrote the Pulizer-winning musical Rent, but tragically died the night before the show’s first preview performance, sadly never getting to see the show became a sensation.
Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hanson, Fosse/Verdon) is adapting the show from Larson’s original version. Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Julie Oh are producing.
Considering the autobiographical nature of the show, Garfield is essentially playing Larson. The show revolves around a man named Jon, a young playwright with ambitious dreams. He waits tables in New York City while penning Superbia, which he hopes will be the next great American musical and finally give him his big break.
However, he’s feeling pressure from his girlfriend, who is tired of continuing to put her life on hold for his career aspirations, while his roommate has given up on his creative dreams and taken a high paying advertising job on Madison Avenue while preparing to move out. As Jon approaches his 30th birthday, he’s overcome with anxiety and wondering if his own impossible dream is worth the cost.
The autobiographical show turned out to be prescient considering Larson won three posthumous Tony awards for Rent, which went on to become the 11th longest running show in Broadway history.
Garfield himself actually has Broadway experience, winning a Tony award for his performance in the 2018 revival of Angels In America. Perhaps that caught Miranda’s eye.
It will be interesting to see how Miranda, who created his own smash hit musical Hamilton, makes the jump to cinema. He’s certainly talented enough to succeed, but it’s always interesting to see what techniques and ideas creators from other mediums bring to the silver screen.
Garfield recently wrapped filming on Gia Coppola‘s romance film Mainstream, and is currently shooting the Michael Showalter-directed The Eyes of Tammy Faye for Fox Searchlight.
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