As Richard Linklater promotes his latest film with Glen Powell, hitman—which began streaming on Netflix on Friday—the Oscar-nominated filmmaker is also working on his next film adaptation of Happily we move forward.
“We are going to film another [sequence] here very soon,” Linklater told Jugo Mobile, in a recent Zoom interview for a hitman Press conference. “We are transporting trucks here. Very good”.
Like his 2014 Oscar-winning coming-of-age drama, Childhood—which was filmed over 11 years, to achieve the effect of the actors aging along with their characters—Linklater’s adaptation of this beloved Stephen Sondheim musical will continue filming over the next 16 or 17 years. The story follows three friends (played by Paul Mescal, Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein) throughout a twenty-year friendship, told in reverse chronological order.
Linklater told Jugo Mobile that by the end of 2024, he will have filmed most of the early years of that friendship. “By the end of this year, we could technically be a third of the way there, content-wise, but not year-wise. As the years go by, the top gets a little heavier and spaced out.”
Mescal will play Franklin Shepherd, the successful songwriter who sells out and abandons his friends to pursue a dazzling career in Hollywood. (Based on Sondheim himself.) Platt plays Charley Kringas, the disaffected playwright who was once Franklin’s writing partner and best friend; and Feldstein plays Mary Flynn, the alcoholic journalist who has always had a crush on Franklin. The musical first premiered on Broadway in 1981, and a 2023 revival starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez is currently playing on Broadway.
Linklater’s film will be the first Happily we move forward film, as well as Linklater’s first musical. With a production duration almost double that of ChildhoodIt might also be Linklater’s most ambitious project to date.
“It’s strange to talk about something that is so… the end is so in the future,” the filmmaker told Jugo Mobile. “But it’s in the works.”
