Warner Bros. announced on Thursday that it will release the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical “In The Heights” on June 26, 2020.
The announcement comes two weeks after Warner Bros. won an intense bidding war to pick up the rights to the musical after Miranda reclaimed them from The Weinstein Company in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the studio’s bankruptcy.
The rights were originally picked up by Universal, but were dropped in 2011 after the studio was reportedly reluctant to produce the film at a $37 million budget. They were then passed to TWC with plans to make the film on a $15 million budget. But after news broke of Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual harassment and assault and TWC fell into financial collapse, the rights went back to Miranda and co-creator Quiara Alegría Hudes.
Now, with Miranda’s clout bigger than ever following the success of “Hamilton” and movie musicals making a comeback after the success of “La La Land” and “The Greatest Showman,” “In The Heights” became the most lucrative property from the TWC sell-off, with the summer release showing that Warner Bros. plans to push the film as a four-quadrant event film. Currently, the June 2020 release slate also includes to-be-determined release slots for a Disney/Pixar film and a Fox/Marvel blockbuster.
WB bought the rights for a reported $50 million after Hudes presented the script to several studios, including Fox, Paramount, Sony, Disney, Netflix and Apple. Jon M. Chu direct the project with Miranda producing with Anthony Bregman and Mara Jacobs. No castings have been announced yet, but Miranda will not play the lead role as he did on Broadway as he has aged out of the role.
First premiering in New York in 2005 with a Broadway launch three years later, “In The Heights” follows the lives of several residents in the primarily Hispanic New York neighborhood known as Washington Heights. Miranda played the show’s narrator, Usnavi de la Vega, the owner of a small bodega in the Heights who longs to escape the neighborhood and move to the Dominican Republic with his crush, Vanessa. The film won four Tonys, including Best Musical, as well as a Grammy and a Pulitzer Prize.
This isn’t the first time WB has picked up a film formerly attached to The Weinstein Company. TWC also held the North American distribution rights to “Paddington 2,” but sold it to Warner Bros. in November to maintain financial solvency.
Warner Bros. will also release Chu’s next film, “Crazy Rich Asians,” on August 15 later this year.
18 All-Time Great Tony Awards Performances, From 'Dreamgirls' to 'Hamilton' (Videos)
"Cabaret" (1967)
Joel Grey sang "Willkommen" to the big time, winning both a Tony (and later an Oscar) playing the M.C. in this musical set in the early days of Nazi Germany.
"Promises, Promises" (1969)
OK, the song "Turkey Lurkey" frankly doesn't make any sense -- and the whole office holiday party is kind of shoehorned into the plot. (The show's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," however, became a big hit for Dionne Warwick.) But Michael Bennett's choreography is head-bobbingly, arm-spinningly awesome.
"A Chorus Line" (1976)
The full "I Hope I Get It!" opening number from the quintessential backstage show -- amazing how long CBS let the numbers run back in the day. Bonus for "Gilmore Girls" fans: That's Kelly Bishop as the haughty dancer who says, "I had it when I was in the front."
"Sweeney Todd" (1979)
Angela Lansbury won the fourth of her five Tony's playing the daffy Mrs. Lovett, the baker of "The Worst Pies in London," in Stephen Sondheim's dark musical.
"Dreamgirls" (1982)
Jennifer Holliday's rendition of "And I'm Telling You..." has been widely imitated, and this is the performance that is most often imitated. A-ma-zing.
"Cats" (1983)
Andrew Lloyd Webber continued his domination of Broadway with this feline musical starring Betty Buckley as Grizabella. Interestingly, the breakout ballad "Memory" was one of the few songs whose lyrics didn't come from T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats."
"Grand Hotel" (1990)
Michael Jeter, perhaps best known from the sitcom "Evening Shade," was a rubber-limbed sensation playing a tipsy bookkeeper in the number "Let's Take a Glass Together."
"Rent" (1996)
Jonathan Larson's rock opera version of "La Boheme" gained extra poignance with his unexpected death after the first Off Broadway preview. The show became a phenomenon, and launched the careers of Idina Menzel, Jesse L. Martin and Taye Diggs.
"Chicago" (1997 revival)
Bebe Neuwirth and Ann Reinking displayed all the athleticism of Bob Fosse's original choreography in the hit revival of Kander & Ebb's musical about the dawn of celebrity criminals (which led to the Oscar-winning 2002 movie).
"The Lion King" (1998)
While Disney's stage version of the animated movie swept most of the major awards in 1998, we chose the opening number from the 2008 telecast -- celebrating the show's 10th anniversary and with clearer shots of Julie Taymor's magnificent puppets and stagecraft.
"Wicked" (2004)
Idina Menzel may have had some cold-induced pitchiness on the final note, but she (and co-star Kristin Chenoweth) are still pretty sensational on the now-standard showstopper "Defying Gravity."
"The Drowsy Chaperone" (2006)
Sutton Foster shows off while insisting that she doesn't want to show off no more in this delightful number.
"Spring Awakening" (2007)
Duncan Sheik's rock musical about rebellious teens shook up the staid world of Broadway with a just-mouthed rendition of "Totally F---ed" performed by very young Lea Michele, Jonathan Groff, John Gallagher Jr. and Skylar Astin.
"Gypsy" (2008 revival)
Everything came up roses for Patti LuPone, who won her second Tony Award playing the irrepressible Mama Rose in the classic musical about showbiz striving.
Neil Patrick Harris' Tony Opening Number (2013)
It's hard to fill a space as cavernous as Radio City Music Hall -- but NPH did just that with a "bigger" number (written by "Hamilton" composer Lin-Manuel Miranda) that included high steps, high notes, leaps, magic, shout-outs to "How I Met Your Mother" fans and even Mike Tyson. Wow.
James Corden's Tony Opening Number (2016)
The hard-working late-night host (and a Tony winner himself) did his own version of a dream-big number, running through a dozen classic Broadway musicals from "Les Miz" to "Fiddler on the Roof" to "Annie."
"Hamilton " (2016)
Audiences at home finally got a chance to see a slice of the buzzed-about hip-hop hit, which even scored an intro from Barack and Michelle Obama.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Drama Students Sing "Seasons of Love" (2018)
There wasn't a dry eye in Radio City Music Hall when students from Parkland, Florida, performed the anthem from "Rent" months after a horrific mass shooting killed 17 of their classmates and teachers. The Tonys had honored their drama teacher, Melody Herzfeld, with a special award.
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A look back at some of Broadway’s highest kicks (and notes) over the history of the Tony telecast
"Cabaret" (1967)
Joel Grey sang "Willkommen" to the big time, winning both a Tony (and later an Oscar) playing the M.C. in this musical set in the early days of Nazi Germany.
