Deadline is reporting that Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton) has been cast as Benny, one of the lead characters to the upcoming feature adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning play In the Heights. He joins A Star Is Born’s Anthony Ramos, who was already announced to play the lead.
The film is set in Washington Heights in New York City and focuses on a bodega owner Usnavi (played by Anthony Ramos) who is closing his store and retiring to the Dominican Republic after inheriting his grandmother’s fortune. The musical won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Musical.
In the novel and play, Benny is the only character who doesn’t speak Spanish. He falls in love with Nina, who the neighborhood admires as “the one who made it out.” She enrolled in Stanford, but dropped out and returns home. Benny works for Nina’s father, Kevin, and dreams of opening his own business. However, Nina’s father refuses to accept Benny as Nina’s beau.
He works for Nina’s father at the taxi dispatch office and falls in love with Nina while dreaming of opening his own business and struggling with her father’s disapproval of their relationship.
Hawkins, who made his breakout in the 2015 N.W.A. biopic Straight Outta Compton as the rap group’s co-founder Dr. Dre, has been seen in AMC’s The Walking Dead, Kong: Skull Island and had the lead role in Fox’s short-lived spin-off 24: Legacy. He was most recently seen in Spike Lee’s acclaimed Best Picture Oscar nominee BlacKkKlansman, and will next be seen in Christoph Watlz’s directorial debut Georgetown, and the Netflix ensemble action film Six Underground.
Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) will direct from a script written by Quiara Alegría Hudes (Hamilton). Miranda, Anthony Bregman, Mara Jacobs, and Scott Sanders will serve as producers on the project. Miranda portrayed the lead role of Usnavi in the Broadway musical, and also wrote the music and lyrics.
In The Heights will be filming next summer on location in NYC’s Washington Heights. It’s scheduled to open in June of 2020
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