Paul Mescal will replace Blake Jenner in Richard Linklater’s musical Merrily We Roll Along

Director Richard Linklater’s ambitious musical adaptation, Merrily We Roll Along, has found a new star in Paul Mescal.

The Aftersun star, 26, will replace Blake Jenner, who pulled out of the film in 2019 after allegations of domestic abuse by his ex-wife Melissa Benoist surfaced, via Over the line.

The project was first announced in August 2019, and the filmmaker shot the project over a 20-year period, much like his film Boyhood, which was shot over a 12-year period.

New Star: Director Richard Linklater’s ambitious musical adaptation Merrily We Roll Along has found a new star in Paul Mescal

Blake Replacement: The 26-year-old Aftersun star will replace Blake Jenner, who pulled out of the film in 2019 after domestic abuse allegations from his ex-wife Melissa Benoist surfaced, via Above the Line.

The project is a film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s 1981 musical of the same name.

The story follows Franklin Shepard (Mescal), a successful Broadway composer who leaves his career and friends behind to become a Hollywood film producer.

The story is told in reverse chronological order, beginning with his old friend and theater critic Mary (Beanie Feldstein) berating him as a sellout, and ending 20 years earlier with Franklin, Mary, and Franklin’s lyricist Charley (Ben Platt) as ‘fresh’. – applicants with a hopeful face.

Character: The story follows Franklin Shepard (Mescal), a successful Broadway composer who leaves his career and friends behind to become a Hollywood film producer.

Mescal has already filmed one segment of the sprawling project, of which Linklater will film segments every year for the next two decades, as he did with Boyhood.

“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 when the project was announced. in 2019.

“I don’t enter this multi-year experience lightly, but it seems like the best, perhaps the only way, to do justice to this story on film,” he added.

Director: “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 when the project was announced in 2019

Linklater filmed Boyhood over a 12-year period, following star Ellar Coltrane from the ages of 6 to 18, filming segments each year with him and Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawken, who played the boy’s parents.

Platt revealed in April that they have already filmed the first sequence and that next time they will meet at ‘Holidays 2023’ to film again.

It’s unclear if Linklater started completely from scratch and abandoned footage he shot in 2019 with Jenner or if he’s implementing Mescal’s scenes into the earlier footage, in some way.

Filmed: Linklater filmed Boyhood over a 12-year period, following star Ellar Coltrane from the ages of 6 to 18, filming segments each year with him and Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawken, who played the boy’s parents.

Mescal first appeared on the scene alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones in the 2020 series Normal People.

He then went on to star in The Lost Daughter, God’s Creatures, and Aftersun, for which he earned rave reviews.

The actor recently made headlines for signing on to star in the highly anticipated sequel to the Best Picture winner, Gladiator.

Roles: Mescal first appeared onstage opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones in the 2020 series Normal People.

Headlines: The actor recently made headlines for signing on to star in the highly anticipated sequel to the Best Picture winner, Gladiator.