Lin-Manuel Miranda Gives Updates on IN THE HEIGHTS, LITTLE MERMAID Films

By: Dec. 28, 2016
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In a new interview with The Daily Beast, Tony, Emmy, Grammy (and potential EGOT) winner Lin-Manuel Miranda discusses his new film MOANA, the status of his big-screen adaptation of IN THE HEIGHTS and his reported role in an upcoming live-action reboot of Disney's THE LITTLE MERMAID.

Asked if there was any stage musical he believed would make a smooth transition to the big screen, Miranda jokes, "If there was I don't know if I would tell you because someone might take that and run with it! I know that Jason Alexander was close to adapting Once on This Island for the screen once. That's a great musical, and I'm surprised that nobody has done that in any screen form. It's a great score."

He continues, "Adapting a stage musical to film is one of the hardest things you can do. It's why I'm taking my time both with Heights and with Hamilton. With Heights we're back on track with The Weinstein Company, and we're really excited by the people we have involved-particularly because [filmmaker] Jon Chu just makes fuckin' incredible musical numbers already. He's really amazing with dance sequences and he's a child of immigrants, so gets the story in his bones in a very real way. I'm excited to see what he does with the material, and I'm excited that Quiara [Alegria Hudes], my co-writer, is working on the screenplay because I feel like she will honor the integrity of what we made together. But that being said, it's going to be hard and we still might fuck it up! It's hard to turn a two-act thing into a three-act thing. It'll be interesting to see what we come up with."

The HAMILTON creator also clears up reports that his will be composing the music for the live-action LITTLE MERMAID film for Disney. "Talks are sort of premature," he explains. "Basically, what happened was that they're planning a live-action adaptation and I sort of threw my hand up in the air as the chairman of the Don't Mess It Up Committee. If that leads to me writing music, fine, or if that leads to me just weighing in on stuff and not writing anything, that's also fine. I'm just the guy with the biggest Little Mermaid hat on wearing all the merch, so you should have me in THE ROOM when you're making these decisions!"

Read the interview in full HERE

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos



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