Netflix has picked up Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tick, Tick... Boom! adaptation, with Andrew Garfield in the running to star. Following the runaway success of his 2015 stage musical Hamilton - a Broadway show about U.S. Founding Father Alexander Hamilton that Miranda both created and starred in during its original run - the multi-hyphenate has continued to enjoy success across a variety of movie and TV projects. He clearly has no intention of slowing down either, seeing as he's currently preparing to make his feature film directorial debut on an adaptation of the musical Tick, Tick... Boom!.
Written by the late Jonathan Larson (the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of Rent), Tick, Tick... Boom! is a semi-autobiographical stage musical about an aspiring composer trying to realize his dreams in New York City circa the early 1990s. Miranda has spoken many times in the past about Larson's influence on his own musical theater career, and even starred in a revival of the show in 2014. In the years since then, he's agreed to make his directing debut on a movie adaptation, and has now found a home for the project - not to mention, its potential leading man.
According to Variety, Netflix has secured the rights to Miranda's Tick, Tick... Boom! movie, following a competitive bidding war. Furthermore, Garfield is said to be the top pick to star in the film (though a deal has yet to be secured).
In addition to his past work on acclaimed dramas like The Social Network and Silence (and, of course, his role in the less-beloved Amazing Spider-Man movies), Garfield is fresh off his Tony-winning performance in the Angels in America stage play revival. He actually made his Broadway debut on 2012's Death of a Salesman revival and seems to have been bitten by the musical bug of late, having also recently signed on to star in a musical biopic about pianist James Rhodes titled Instrumental. Clearly, Miranda feels he has the singing abilities to match his proven dramatic chops, and is more than up to the challenge of, basically, playing Jonathan Larson in a movie. That's to say, he would be a nice catch for Tick, Tick... Boom! the movie... assuming that he's ultimately willing to commit, of course.
Frankly, though, it's hard to imagine Garfield won't jump at the chance to work with Miranda on an adaptation of a well-respected musical. Tick, Tick... Boom! might not have the commercial draw-power of other, more famous Broadway shows, but that simply makes Netflix the ideal place for it to call home and avoid getting overlooked at the box office. Musicals are one of the few things that Netflix hasn't really tried their hand at yet, but a Tick, Tick... Boom! movie directed by Miranda, written by Stephen Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen), and potentially starring Garfield sounds like a great way for them to start changing that.
Source: Variety