Hamilton Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda To Direct Big-Screen Adaptation Of A Beloved Musical

Lin-Manuel Miranda is keeping busy, and for his next trick, he’s heading back behind the camera to adapt a musical—though probably not the one most people would have guessed. Instead of pulling from the familiar Broadway cannon, Miranda’s diving into cult favorite territory with Octet, a show about a very modern sort of misery: internet addiction.

Lin-Manuel Miranda + Dave Malloy = Musical Nerd Heaven

Let’s break this down. Octet is the brainchild (and probably the therapy bill) of playwright and composer Dave Malloy, who is best known for Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. The show made its Off-Broadway debut back in 2019. It’s a completely a cappella musical – meaning, no instruments, just voices – that’s set in a church basement where eight people meet up for a support group to talk about their struggles with life online, doomscrolling, and everything else the internet messes up in our brains. If you’re thinking 'that sounds more like a Black Mirror episode than a feel-good musical,' you’re not wrong. But Miranda says he’s been obsessed with this thing since he first saw Annie Tippe’s original staging. (And apparently he's been noodling on how to adapt it for a movie ever since.)

'I’ve been obsessed since I saw Annie Tippe’s production in November 2019, and working on adapting this with Dave for the past six years. Now we get to make the movie.'
— Lin-Manuel Miranda, Instagram

That’s some dedication — six years of back-and-forth to get this to the screen. Dave Malloy seems just as jazzed about it, calling Miranda 'a brilliant storyteller, fellow internet junkie, and dear friend.' He even tossed in a humble brag about the cast: 'Our cast is completely ridiculous.' No word yet on who’s actually in it, though, so stand by for that.

So Who’s Actually Making This Happen?

No casting announcements yet, but here’s who is on board:

• Lin-Manuel Miranda: Directing, and presumably making everyone do 47 takes of complicated vocal percussion.
• Dave Malloy: Writing the screenplay and executive producing (the theater equivalent of not letting your baby out of your sight).
• Julie Oh & 5000 Broadway Productions (Miranda’s company): Producing, with John Skidmore for Best Kept Secret Productions and Luis A. Miranda Jr. (Lin's father, just FYI).
• More Executive Producers: Johnny Holland, Owen Panettieri, Diana DiMenna, Sander Jacobs, Caren Jacobs, the TodayTix Group, Jeffrey Seller, Teresa Tsai, and John Gore for Broadway.com — basically, a whole village of backers.

Why This, Why Now?

If you missed Miranda’s last go as a director, it was the film version of Tick, Tick... Boom! back in 2021, which snagged Oscar nominations for Andrew Garfield (Best Actor) and Best Editing. Not bad for a debut. So, he’s got some cred now as a filmmaker, not just the guy with all the Tonys.

Is Octet as big as Hamilton or In the Heights? No, not even close. But it’s a unique and surprisingly relevant show about the pitfalls of digital life — and turning a living-room-sized Off-Broadway experiment into a feature film takes guts. I’m honestly curious to see what this ends up looking like, and if Miranda can get mainstream audiences to care about a cappella group therapy for internet junkies. Either way, it’ll have people talking (or at least doomscrolling for the trailer).