Rachel Zegler Joins Forces With Adrien Brody for a New Musical

Here's one that mixes big talent, an unlikely team-up, and a story with plenty of emotional weight: Rachel Zegler and Adrien Brody are coming together for a new musical movie about love, loss, and, well, a gay cruise in the early 90s. If that all sounds a little surprising, you're not alone—there are a few curveballs in this project. Let's break it down.

The Players: A Seriously Loaded Cast and Crew

The movie is called Last Dance. At the helm is Karim Aïnouz, the Brazilian director who's quietly built a reputation at Cannes, most recently with Firebrand.

Adrien Brody, who just nabbed a second Best Actor Oscar for The Brutalist (not many people can say that), is taking the lead. This marks his first project post-Oscar, and let's just say, it's not the standard post-awards victory lap.

Rachel Zegler—who's had her share of high-profile musicals already (West Side Story, anyone?)—is his co-star. She's coming off a big stage turn in Evita on London's West End, and yes, she'll be singing original music here, so she's firmly back in her element.

And just for good measure, Ben Platt is on board too. But he's not just acting—he's writing original music for the movie as well. If you're counting: that's Tony, Emmy, Grammy (Platt), Golden Globe (Zegler), and two Oscars (Brody) all rolled into one film.

What's the Story?

This isn't your typical musical, which is honestly a relief. The film is based on Emily Ziff Griffin's 2021 New Yorker piece, "The Last Dance with My Dad"—so yes, expect some real-life inspiration.

• Brody plays Elliot, a well-known Broadway composer who, in 1991, takes his daughter Emma (that's Zegler) on a Caribbean cruise—the not-so-subtle twist: it's a gay cruise.
• Emma is the only straight woman on board and winds up falling for a young crew member.
• But the shadow over the party: Elliot is dealing with his own AIDS diagnosis, which is about to force a lot of truths into the open for both father and daughter.

Behind the Scenes

The production setup is as stacked as the cast. Fifth Season and Oscar-nominated producer Lynette Howell Taylor’s 51 Entertainment (she produced A Star is Born) are handling production. FilmNation Entertainment is leading international sales, while Fifth Season and CAA Media Finance Group are taking care of domestic rights. The movie will officially launch at the upcoming Cannes market, which is where these sorts of projects tend to get a lot of hype—or with this much pedigree, maybe even a bidding war.

Director and Execs Weigh In

The director, Aïnouz, didn't mince words describing why he wanted to make this: "I am thrilled to bring to the screen such a unique and moving portrait of a time where hope and celebration allowed our queer community to overcome one of the worst crises of last century." He pitched Last Dance as "a universal and urgent tale where joy is taken up as resilience."

FilmNation CEO Glen Basner gave the script high marks and, in what feels like a not-so-subtle Oscar campaign starter, called it "powerful in both its crystal-clear specificity, and in its relatability to all children." He emphasized that the movie "vividly recreates New York in the nineties" and centers on a very moving father-daughter relationship.

Final Thoughts

Between the stacked cast and the unusual premise (not a lot of musical movies set on a gay cruise during the AIDS crisis), there's no way this won't end up being one of the more talked-about projects once it actually gets made. Will it be heartwarming? Sad? Cringe? Probably a mix of all three, and, honestly, I'm here to see how it plays out.