Lin-Manuel Miranda on ‘In the Heights’ and How Famed Lyricist Howard Ashman Changed His Life

With director Jon M. Chu’s fantastic adaption of In the Heights getting ready to arrive in theaters and streaming on HBO Max, I recently landed an exclusive interview with Lin-Manuel Miranda. During the wide-ranging conversation, he talked about his reaction watching the finished film for the first time, his long history trying to get In the Heights made as a movie, what director Kenny Ortega’s version would have been like if they’d made it a decade ago and why that version never happened, how Chu changed the game with the way he cast Crazy Rich Asians, getting to film on location and the way the neighborhood embraced the film, and much more. In addition, he talked about the challenges of trying to make a Hamilton movie, why he loves the version that’s available on Disney , and the way lyricist Howard Ashman impacted his life both as a child and in his work on animated films like Moana, Vivo and Encanto. In the Heights is based on Miranda’s 2008 Tony-winning Broadway musical. Set in New York’s Dominica