Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator ofHamilton, is making his feature film directorial debut with Tick, Tick… Boom!, an adaptation of Jonathan Larson's semi-autobiographical musical. Netflix, the distributor of the film, has just released a new trailer on YouTube.
From the trailer, we can see that Andrew Garfield, who played Peter Parker in the 2012 Spider-Man reboot, is starring in the film as Jon, a fictionalized version of Jonathan Larson. Larson, who also created the musical Rent, wrote Tick, Tick... Boom! as a way of addressing his doubts about choosing a life in the performing arts. Originally a rock monologue performed by Larson, the musical was reconfigured after his death in 1996 and became a three-person musical.
The musical follows Jon, a young songwriter, as he struggles to make it in the industry. As his 30th birthday draws near, he begins worrying about his own mortality, while also stressing over the first performance of one of his works. Despite this being Miranda's first time in the director's chair, the trailer shows that Jon's woes are going to be externalized in visually dynamic ways. It's clear that this was an ambitious and zesty project and will be one of the must-see films of 2021.
Aside from Garfield, the film also features Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical), Alexandra Shipp (Straight Outta Compton, X-Men: Apocalypse), and Bradley Whitford (Get Out, The Handmaid's Tale). Miranda, who appeared in In the Heights earlier this year, presumably makes a cameo appearance as well. Tick, Tick... Boom! is scheduled to debut on Netflix and in select theaters this fall.
