Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein to Star in Movie Musical—20 Years From Now

Jewish BFFs Ben Platt (“Dear Evan Hansen,” “Pitch Perfect”) and Beanie Feldstein (“Booksmart,” “Lady Bird”) are teaming up to star in a film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical “Merrily We Roll Along,” based on George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s 1934 play of the same name. 

But you’ll have to wait a while—quite a while—to see it. The story spans 20 years, and director Richard Linklater is taking that literally. He intends to shoot the movie in installments over the next two decades. The plan worked for him before—he took 12 years to make the acclaimed “Boyhood.” 

Platt, who won a Tony Award for the musical “Dear Evan Hansen,” will play a Broadway composer who leaves the theater to produce movies in Hollywood, The story begins at the height of his fame and flashes back to how he achieved it. Feldstein will play his best friend, a theater critic. 

“I first saw and fell in love with ‘Merrily’ in the ‘80s and I can’t think of a better place to spend the next 20 years than in the world of a Sondheim musical,” Linklater said in a statement. “I don’t enter this multi-year experience lightly, but it seems the best, perhaps the only way, to do this story justice on film.”

More imminently, Platt stars as ambitious high school student who aims to be president—first the student body, eventually the White House—in the Netflix series “The Politician,” premiering Sept. 27. Feldstein will play Monica Lewinsky in the next installment of FX’s “American Crime Story,” about the White House intern’s infamous affair with Bill Clinton. She’ll also star in the comedy “How to Build a Girl” with Emma Thompson and the family drama “The Humans” with Amy Schumer.