Lin-Manuel Miranda announces cast for In The Heights film

Lin-Manuel Miranda has taken to Twitter to unveil the cast for the upcoming big screen adaptation of his Tony and Olivier Award-winning musical In The Heights.

Hamilton and A Star is Born actor Anthony Ramos is confirmed to star as Usnavi in the musical film, alongside Corey Hawkins (Six Degrees of Separation) as Benny, Melissa Barrera (Vida) as Vanessa and singer-songwriter Leslie Grace as Nina.

In a second tweet, Miranda also stated that original Broadway cast member Olga Merediz would be playing Abuela Claudia, Jimmy Smits (recurring Star Wars star) would be playing Kevin Rosario and Gregory Diaz IV (Matilda the Musical) would be playing Sonny.

Set in New York's Washington Heights, the musical tells the story of a Hispanic-American community over the course of three days. The film will be directed by Jon M Chu and according to Miranda will be shot in the Washington Heights.

After running on Broadway from 2008 to 2011, the piece had its UK premiere at Southwark Playhouse in 2014 before transferring to the King's Cross Theatre, where it ran from 2015 to 2017 and won three Olivier Awards.

The film adaptation of In The Heights is scheduled to be released in 2020.

*taps *
And now, I'm thrilled to announce some of the cast of our In The Heights film…@ARamosofficial IS Usnavi@MelissaBarreraM IS Vanessa#CoreyHawkins IS Benny @lesliegrace IS Nina Rosario

We film this summer. Uptown.
Right here In The Heights.
…More soon! pic.twitter.com/xTfzjydC9n