Set your calendars, everyone, and prepare to spend the summer of 2020 in Washington Heights with your favorite set of singing New Yorkers! After spending a record $50 million to secure the rights, Warner Bros. is wasting no time setting up the long-gestating film adaptation of Lin Manuel-Miranda‘s Tony-award winning musical, In the Heights. The studio announced that audiences will be able to watch the film version of Miranda’s musical debut on June 26, 2020.
It’s been a long road to the screen for Miranda’s musical play about a bodega owner set to leave his borough behind after winning the lottery. The stage musical opened in 2005 and Universal initially secured the rights, prepping for director Kenny Ortega to helm the project starring Miranda himself. The project floundered for several years before Universal abandoned the project in 2011. Back in 2016, Jay-Z announced his intention to help finance an adaptation, acting as co-producer alongside The Weinstein Company. Well, we all know how that turned out as it was just two months ago that Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes won the rights back from the now bankrupt TWC in the wake of sexual assault allegations against founder Harvey Weinstein. Warner Bros. is the first studio to actually cement a release date for the film, which has Crazy Rich Asians director Jon Chu attached. It’s unclear if Miranda will feature in any capacity in this new adaptation.
Fans are ready to see one of Miranda’s shows on-screen, and if it’s not going to be Hamilton this is a fantastic substitute. Miranda’s style is so unique and many fans have only ever heard the soundtrack (or watched poorly pirated copies of the shows on YouTube), so this would be an opportunity to see the actual show physically. The question is whether Miranda would still consider playing the lead role at this point, or if he’d possibly show up as a supporting character. It’d be such a shame to not have the creator appear in this somewhere.
In the Heights arrives in theaters on June 26, 2020.