‘Boyhood’ filmmaker, Richard Linklater has signed up helm an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim musical ‘Merrily We Roll Along’.

The ambitious project is set to follow in the footsteps of ‘Boyhood’ and span over a number of years. The project is based on the musical and the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart which takes place over 20 years. Linklater has stated he wanted to stay faithful to the original. It is reported that 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.

The story follows Franklin Shepard, a talented Broadway composer who abandons his theatre 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.

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‘Booksmart’s’ Beanie Feldstein will play Frank’s best friend, theatre critic Mary Flynn, Ben Platt will also star.

Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions is to produce the project.

Platt is most famously known for his part in the first two ‘Pitch Perfect’ movies. He has previously worked with Feldstein in Whitney Cummings‘ indie comedy ‘The Female Brain’. Whilst most recently he took to the stage in Broadway’s ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ he can next be seen in Netflix series ‘The Politician’.

Feldstein has previously starred in ‘Lady Bird’ and Olivia Wilde’s ‘Booksmart’ and popped up in a few episodes of ‘What We Do in the Shadows’. Her upcoming projects include ‘How to Build a Girl’ alongside Emma Thompson and ‘The Human’s’ alongside Amy Schumer and Steven Yeun.