Jon M. Chu on ‘In the Heights,’ the ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Sequel, and the Status of the ‘Wicked’ Movie
27With In the Heights now playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, I recently landed an interview with director Jon M. Chu to talk about his fantastic adaption of Lin-Manuel Miranda 2008 Tony-winning Broadway musical. Set in New York’s Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights, it follows the life of Usnavi de la Vega (Anthony Ramos), who spends his days dreaming about a better life while he takes care of his small bodega and saves every penny for a brighter future. In the Heights also stars Corey Hawkins, Melissa Barrera, Leslie Grace, Olga Merediz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Gregory Diaz IV, Stephanie Beatriz, Dascha Polanco and Jimmy Smits. The film is produced by Miranda, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Scott Sanders, Anthony Bregman and Mara Jacobs, with screenplay by Hudes.
During the wide-ranging and fun conversation, Chu talked about how making the Step Up films prepared him for In the Heights, how they got to film on location and the challenges once they got there, what it was like editing the movie with Myron Kerstein and who he trusted for honest feedback, when he felt like he made it as a director and would continue to book projects, why the Now You See Me sequel wasn’t called Now You Don’t, and more.
In addition, for fans of Crazy Rich Asians wondering about the sequels, Chu told me:
“We’re working on it. It needs to be great for us to drag everybody back. There is no way I’m coming back unless it’s great. It’s getting there.”
I followed up asking about the scripts and if they’re done, to which Chu responded, “We have scripts that we are working on. In progress.”
Finally, with Chu currently working on the big-screen Wicked adaptation, I asked him how the development is going and what he learned making In the Heights that he will take with him to Wicked. He told me:
"We're in the beginning stages of Wicked. However, I think the philosophy of what musicals mean to me personally now that I have actually made a movie musical... you know, there's theory about what movie musicals mean to me as being a watcher of movie musicals. Now that I've gone through it, what really has hit me is the power of music and why musicals exist in the first place when words aren't sufficient. Nowadays, words really aren't sufficient for what we're going through. So for me, it's finding the truth of each song and working our way inside out of why that exists."
Read the full article on Collider here: https://collider.com/jon-m-chu-interview-in-the-heights-crazy-rich-asians-2-wicked-movie/
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