Anthony Ramos hasn't asked InTheHeights director Jon M. Chu for a part in Wicked just yet, but he's got his eyes on one role in particular.
In the Heights
Those are all actual things I was pitched.” He pauses for a moment, not to entertain those queries but to consider their absurdity. “Because the pressure of leaving your neighborhood to go to school is fucking enough. I promise. And if it’s not dramatic enough, that’s on us to show you the fucking stakes.”Miranda stood his ground.
As a studio movie, “In the Heights” feels revolutionary precisely because its characters aren’t. The story centers on Usnavi , a bodega owner who’s working to save enough money to return home to the Dominican Republic. He’s orbited by an ensemble of vibrant personalities: his childhood friend Nina , who “made it out” but fears she will let down her immigrant father as she struggles at school.
Chu’s career is also at an inflection point. With a range of commercial winners, “Crazy Rich Asians,” “Step Up 2: The Streets” and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” among them, he’s one of today’s most in-demand directors. But he hasn’t yet become a “name.” If “In the Heights” is a triumph, it could put Chu in rarefied company. After this film, he’s taking on an even more popular stage-to-screen adaptation with “Wicked.
“How we’re portrayed on-screen is how we’re treated in real life,” Castillo says. “We have a dream to be represented, to be included, in a positive light in Hollywood film. And ‘In the Heights’ is that film.”, filled with setbacks, false starts and disappointing twists. “In the Heights” was almost produced at Universal Pictures, which optioned the property after it won the Tony for best musical in 2008, with Kenny Ortega attached to direct.
“As a woman, I can no longer do business with the Weinstein Company,” tweeted Quiara Alegría Hudes, who wrote the screenplay and the book for the stage show, in 2017. “‘In the Heights’ deserves a fresh start in a studio where I’ll feel safe ” Chu had recently completed production on “Crazy Rich Asians” at Warner Bros. and made a compelling case to Miranda and Hudes for the level of creative control the studio gave him. Weeks later, they closed the deal and secured a $55 million production budget.
The playwright went home that night and, in true Miranda fashion, rhapsodized on Twitter like a proud dad. “I read that shit, and it got me emotional,” Ramos, now 29, says of the social media thread. As weeks passed, Ramos heard nothing. Finally, he got an offer that would conflict with shooting “In the Heights.” “I texted Jon and said, ‘I just got another job, but I really want to do this movie, bro,’” Ramos recalls. “He was like, ‘Hold. Let me get the suits to move.’ Those were his literal words. And boom, I got the offer the next day.”
With more than a decade having passed since the musical debuted on Broadway, Hudes and Miranda felt the need to update storylines with timely references to DACA , the policy that protects undocumented minors, as well as instances of the microaggressions experienced by people of color. To manage the movie’s run time, they also had to trim beloved characters and songs, even if it meant cutting funny lyrics about the origin of Usnavi’s name .
The result is the movie’s most ambitious musical moment, a scene involving elaborate synchronized swimming and dancing that gives Busby Berkeley a run for his money. Capturing the action tested the cast and crew’s resolve. The two June days they shot “96,000” were unusually cold because a storm was brewing, leaving the 500 extras and actors shivering while they waited for Chu to roll camera.
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