The movie, which had its world premiere at AFI Fest in Los Angeles, pays tribute to Jonathan Larson, the writer of “Rent” who was Broadway’s wunderkind a generation before Miranda.
“Film was my first love. I fell in love with movies, my grandfather owned a VHS video store when I was a kid – Miranda Video,” the composer said.
“I spent my summers watching everything – very little of it appropriate to a child of seven or eight years of age, but I watched it all. And so I feel like I’ve come all the way back around to my first love.”
Miranda’s “tick, tick… Boom!” is an adaptation of Larson’s stripped-down musical of the same name, which recounted his struggles to create art and his fear of growing old without success.
Larson died aged just 35, never getting to see and enjoy the huge popularity, plethora of Tony Awards and Pulitzer Prize for drama that “Rent” would garner.
“It’s the only movie I ever actually daydreamed about making before I even got the opportunity to direct,” said Miranda, who saw Larson’s musical while still at university.
“It was the month after Sept 11, when everyone was questioning, ‘What am I even doing with my life?’ And the entire musical is about ‘what are you even doing with your life?’
“It felt like a personal attack and a call to action.”
The film cuts between Larson, played by Andrew Garfield, performing the original rock monologue of “tick, tick… Boom!” on stage in New York, and flashbacks to the life events that inspired it.
“I brought the music I loved, hip hop music and Latin music, into my work the same way Jonathan took rock music into his,” said Miranda.
“Sort of just advancing his thesis, I feel like a student of his. It’s worked out pretty well.”
‘Itching to write’
While “tick, tick… Boom!” is Miranda’s first feature film as director, he has been in growing demand in Hollywood since the colossal success of “Hamilton”.
Disney bought the streaming rights to a taped stage production of “Hamilton”, which tells the story of the United States’ founding fathers via hip-hop, for US$75 million.
Miranda also produced a film version of his first musical, “In The Heights”, and wrote the songs for Disney’s forthcoming Colombia-set magical realist fantasy “Encanto”.
Former “The Amazing Spider-Man” star Garfield told AFP that Miranda had “set up an atmosphere of community that you only really get in theatre, that you don’t often find in film”.
Co-star and “Hamilton” alumnus Joshua Henry joked that while navigating his way as director, Miranda sometimes “would say cut when he meant action, and vice-versa.”
“But seeing him come into his own was a really inspiring thing,” Garfield added.
While delays due to the pandemic have caused the releases of Miranda’s various big-screen efforts to coincide, he said he is back “seeing as much theatre as I can” on Broadway.
“And I’m itching to write again, too, once I’m on the other side of all of these movies that are all coming out the same week because of the pandemic. I’m excited to clear my desk.”