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Andrew Garfield discusses working with Lin-Manuel Miranda on tick, tick…boom! Netflix movie

The star of the upcoming musical film discussed working with the ”Hamilton” creator

Andrew Garfield
Andrew Garfield
© Dan Wooller

Audiences are getting excited for the upcoming film adaptation of Jonathan Larson's tick, tick…boom!, which is set to be unveiled on Netflix at some point in 2021.

Critics also seem to be rather enthused by the project, which marks Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut. Variety even gave the piece a nod on its Oscar-winner predictions list earlier this week which, while certainly an exercise in counting golden chickens before they've hatched, is certainly a big thumbs up.

The film's star Andrew Garfield only added to the hype following a late night appearance on the Jimmy Fallon show last night. Chatting to Fallon about working with the In the Heights and Hamilton creator, Garfield said: "You know Lin, he's like a crazy mixture of the most precocious eight year-old genius student of life that won't stop talking and has a reference to everything, while simultaneously being one of the greatest creative geniuses of our time. It's this weird combination of having that eight year-old running around your ankles, but that eight year-old has also written Hamilton."

Garfield said that proof of this came when Miranda even decided to reference the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles during the Oscars. "I love him – to get to work with him with a privilege."

Miranda is working on a plethora of 2021 projects, including new animated musical Vivo, the cinematic release of In the Heights and is helping to pen tunes for the new live-action Little Mermaid film, all while also premiering to reveal his own Disney animated piece, Encanto, set to land this autumn.

Garfield also spilled one juicy secret – he got to work with Tariq from The Roots (the band that accompanies Fallon's show) on the project "for a day or two…though I don't know if I was supposed to say that but I just did. So I got to witness the genius in the flesh".

tick, tick…boom!'s release date is to be confirmed, though as it isn't featured in Netflix's summer 2021 trailer, it'll probably be autumn at the earliest before we see the musical version of the stage show.

Semi-autobiographical, Larson's (Rent) musical is based on the story of an aspiring composer in New York City who is worried he made the wrong career choice.

Appearing in the Netflix film is a starry and stagey cast featuring Garfield (playing Larson), Vanessa Hudgens (as Karessa Johnson), Alexandra Shipp (as Susan), Judith Light (as Rosa Stevens), Robin de Jesus (Michael), Joanna Adler (Molly), Joshua Henry (Roger), Alex D Jennings (Lifeguard), Lauren Marcus (Donna), Marie Rose Baramo (Fly girl), Jared Loftin (role tbc) and Kenita Miller (role tbc) and Bradley Whitford. In a fun twist, Whitford will be taking on the role of Stephen Sondheim in the film – a new performance (not just a voicemail!) that is not present in the original stage show.

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