Filmmaker Richard Linklater, whose ambitious 2014 film Boyhood spanned the course of 12 years and was nominated for six Oscars, is directing a new multi-year movie that will star Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein, multiple sources tell Collider.

Linklater’s longtime collaborator Ginger Sledge is producing the ambitious project, and sources say that Jason Blum and his Blumhouse banner are also involved. The film is an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim‘s acclaimed musical Merrily We Roll Along, which itself was based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The play takes place over the course of 20 years, and sources say that Linklater plans to stay true to that timeline. Representatives for Linklater, Platt, Feldstein and Blumhouse did not respond to requests for comment.

Merrily We Roll Along follows Franklin Shepard, a talented Broadway composer who abandons his theater career in New York and all his friends in order to produce movies in Los Angeles. Like the play, the musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank’s life that shaped the man he is today. Platt will play the lead, while Feldstein will play his best friend, theater critic Mary Flynn. Sources say the film is being shot in reverse chronological order, as the play and musical end when the characters are in their mid-20s and just embarking on their entertainment careers.

Platt is the star of the hit Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen and Ryan Murphy‘s upcoming Netflix series The Politician. He co-starred in the first two Pitch Perfect movies, and he and Feldstein previously shared the screen in Whitney Cummings‘ indie comedy The Female Brain.

Feldstein has enjoyed a steady rise on the big screen over the last several years. She started out as a scene-stealer in Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising before landing a breakout role in Lady Bird as Saoirse Ronan‘s best friend. Her force-of-nature turn in Olivia Wilde‘s critically acclaimed comedy Booksmart, however, has taken her career to the next level, which has apparently led to this ambitious Linklater film.

Up next for Feldstein is the indie comedy How to Build a Girl, which pairs her with Emma Thompson and Chris O’Dowd, as well as A24’s The Humans, from power producer Scott Rudin. Feldstein will star alongside Amy Schumer, Steven Yeun and Richard Jenkins. And as a fan of FX’s What We Do in the Shadows, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Feldstein also appears on that show, which as you might expect, is really funny.

Linklater personally earned three Oscar nominations for writing, directing and producing Boyhood, and he earned two more Oscar noms for co-writing entries in the Before trilogy with Julie Delpy and Kim Krizan. His next film, an adaptation of the bestselling novel Where’d You Go, Bernadette, hits theaters on Aug. 16, and stars Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig, Judy Greer, Billy Crudup and Laurence Fishburne.

Linklater is represented by CAA and Cinetic Media, while Platt is repped by CAA, One Entertainment and attorney Michael A. Auerbach. Feldstein is repped by WME, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and attorney Daniel Passman.

Ha! So true. One last thing — tell me about this new film version of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Merrily We Roll Along.” The story — the coming-of-age of three friends — takes place over 20 years, and will be shot over that same period. Crazy!

I know, man. When Rick Linklater called me, maybe eight months ago, I thought I was in trouble. I got a voicemail to call him. I looked at my roommate at the time and was like, “Is he pissed at me? What’s going on?” He was like, “No, no, call him back.” I did and he started talking about “Merrily” and asked me to do it. I was kind of in shock. We shot the first year recently, and I’ve already learned so much from just one day of working with (costar) Ben Platt. It feels like we became fast friends.

So they won’t have to age you with makeup. You’ll age for real, onscreen.

It’s wild. I was on set and looked at Rick and said, “Hey, I have a two-year-old niece.” He was like, “Oh, that’s cool.” I said, “Yeah — she’s going to be 22 years old when this comes out. (He chuckles.) That’s just crazy.

Paul Mescal, the star of A24’s Aftersun and Hulu’s Normal People who just landed the lead in Ridley Scott‘s Gladiator sequel, has been tapped to replace Blake Jenner in Richard Linklater‘s ambitious multi-decade feature adaptation of Stephen Sondheim‘s acclaimed musical Merrily We Roll Along, multiple sources tell Above the Line.

Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein were cast way back in the summer of 2019 when the project first began filming. Jenner did shoot scenes for the film, though he exited the project shortly after domestic violence allegations surfaced against the actor from his ex-wife, Supergirl star Melissa Benoist.

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 in order to produce movies in Los Angeles. Like the play, the musical begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backward in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank’s life that shaped the man he went on to become. Feldstein will play Frank’s best friend, theater critic Mary Flynn, while her real-life pal Platt will play Charley, Frank’s regular lyricist.

Sondheim’s musical was itself based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Back in 2019, sources indicated that the film would be shot in reverse chronological order, as the play and musical end when the characters are in their mid-20s and just embarking on their entertainment careers.

“I first saw, and fell in love with Merrily in the ’80s, and I can’t think of a better place to spend the next 20 years than in the world of a Sondheim musical,” Linklater said in a statement to the New York Times. “I don’t enter this multiyear experience lightly, but it seems the best, perhaps the only way, to do this story justice on film,” added the director, who is also producing the film alongside Jason Blum and Jonathan Marc Sherman.

Linklater’s similarly ambitious Boyhood spanned the course of 12 years and was nominated for six Oscars, with Linklater nominated for his writing, directing, and producing efforts. He also earned two additional Oscar noms for co-writing entries in the Before trilogy with Julie Delpy and Kim Krizan.

Mescal earned an Emmy nomination for his turn in Hulu’s limited series Normal People, and his performance in A24’s Aftersun also has him in contention for an Oscar nomination this month. Additionally, Mescal starred opposite Emily Watson in the A24 movie God’s Creatures, and he has wrapped Garth Davis‘ Foe, which will pair him with Saoirse Ronan.

EXCLUSIVE: Mallory Bechtel (Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin) has landed a role opposite Paul Mescal, Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein in Richard Linklater’s feature adaptation of Merrily We Roll Along, the classic musical from Stephen Sondheim and George Furth.

Details as to her role haven’t been disclosed.

Merrily follows Franklin Shepard, who after establishing himself as a talented composer of Broadway musicals, abandons his friends and songwriting career to become a producer of Hollywood movies. The story takes place over 20 years, and Linklater will shoot the film over the same time span, taking a page from his playbook on the Oscar-nominated Boyhood, shot over 12 years.

With a book by Furth and music and lyrics by Sondheim, the musical is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. It ran for 44 previews and 16 performances on Broadway in 1981 and recently returned to Broadway, in the form of a revival starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, which continues to run at the Hudson Theatre through March 24.

Producers of the feature take are Ginger Sledge, Jason Blum for Blumhouse Productions, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Linklater and Mike Blizzard.

Bechtel has most recently been seen starring opposite Bailee Madison in Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, the fourth series in the popular teen mystery franchise Pretty Little Liars, which is set to return for a second season on Max (under the name Pretty Little Liars: Summer School) later this year. Created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Lindsay Calhoon Bring, the show has her portraying identical twins, Karen and Kelly Beasley, furthering the twin mythology of the original series and young adult novels by Sara Shepard on which the franchise is based.

Making her big screen debut in Ari Aster’s breakout A24 horror Hereditary, Bechtel began her career on stage, at the age of 16 deferring college to become the first Broadway replacement for the role of Zoe Murphy in Dear Evan Hansen. She was also set to perform alongside James Van Der Beek in a limited production of beloved 1960 musical Bye Bye Birdie, before plans were impacted by the Covid pandemic. The actress is represented by Circle of Confusion and CESD Talent Agency.