US filmmaker Richard Linklater said he is a third of the way through filming his adaptation of the Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along starri
US filmmaker Richard Linklater said he is a third of the way through filming his adaptation of the Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along starring Paul Mescal, which is being shot over 20 years.
“The film comprises nine sections over 20 years, [shot in real time], and we’ve filmed three of them,” said Linklater during an on-stage talk at the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) last week.
The director referred to his 2014 film Boyhood, shot over 12 years and starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, as “proof of concept” for his ambitious musical adaptation, with a cast including Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein.
Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along premiered on Broadway in 1981 to largely negative reviews, closing after just 16 performances. The musical was based on a 1934 play of the same name.
“We’re a third of the way through, material-wise, but not in terms of time,” said Linklater, noting this slower approach will “solve the storytelling problem” faced by Sondheim’s musical. “They cast the actors too young, so they’re playing dress-up in their 40s, and people just don’t believe it.”
Linklater, whose features Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague both played at LFF, also lamented the challenges facing the exhibition sector, believing it is not production costs that are the issue for independent filmmaking, but getting those films to reach audiences, in a period in which “film exhibition culture [has] changed”.
“Anyone can make a film,” responded Linklater after an audience member suggested his 1990 feature Slacker wouldn’t be made today. “You say you couldn’t make it today – why? It’s even cheaper than when I made it for $23,000. The bigger challenge is having that film seen.”
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