Hot off his scoring the lead role in Ridley Scott’s currently preparing-to-film “Gladiator” sequel, actor Paul Mescal (“Aftersun,” “Normal People”) has been set to replace Blake Jenner in Richard Linklater’s two-decade feature film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s acclaimed musical “Merrily We Roll Along”.
Above The Line broke the news of the casting for the film which, much like “Boyhood,” will be shot a little bit at a time over a span of years. In this case, it’s a twenty-year span and filming takes place in reverse chronological order.
Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein were also cast in supporting roles in the summer of 2019 when the project began filming. Jenner did shoot scenes for the film in 2019 though he exited the project shortly after.
Mescal takes over the lead role of Franklin Shepard, a talented Broadway composer who abandons his theater career in New York and all his friends to produce movies in Los Angeles.
The musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backward in time, showing snapshots of the most critical moments in Frank’s life that shaped the man he went on to become.
Feldstein will play Frank’s best friend and theater critic Mary Flynn, while Platt will play Frank’s regular lyricist Charley. Sondheim’s musical ends with the characters in their mid-20s and just embarking on their entertainment careers.
Linklater, Jason Blum and Jonathan Marc Sherman will all produce the film, which theoretically should see a release in the early 2040s.
