‘Merrily We Roll Along’ film’s bold 20-year shoot rolls on

Some directors shoot a movie in a few months. Richard Linklater is shooting “Merrily We Roll Along” across two decades, and he has confirmed the project is still very much alive.

Linklater’s film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical is being made in nine sections over 20 years, and production on the fourth section resumes in a few months, he told an audience at the Zurich Film Festival, Variety reported. The cast includes Paul Mescal, Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt.

“My progress report is this: It’s nine sections in 20 years, and in a few months, we are filming a fourth. So see you in 2040,” Linklater said.

A Sondheim story told the slow way

“Merrily We Roll Along” follows three friends across decades, told in reverse chronological order in its original stage form. That backward structure has made it one of Sondheim’s trickiest works to stage, let alone film. The recent Broadway revival starred Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez and won four Tony Awards, including best revival of a musical, giving the material fresh momentum as Linklater’s version continues its long build.

Shooting a story about people aging over 20 years by actually filming across 20 years is the kind of stunt only Linklater would attempt twice.

‘Boyhood,’ but public

“Boyhood” famously tracked its young star growing up over 12 years, shot with almost no outside attention until it was finished. Linklater says the “Merrily We Roll Along” shoot is a different animal entirely, because everyone already knows it’s happening.

“When I was doing ‘Boyhood,’ we worked in complete anonymity. No one knew about the film. This one, because it’s a Stephen Sondheim musical, is very public. I will have to answer this question for 20 years while we are making it,” Linklater said at the festival, where he received its Career Achievement Award.

He admitted he’s “tempting fate” with such a long production. “That’s the only way to tell this story, but people go: ‘What if someone dies?'” he said. “You’ve got to be collaborating with the future and just work that into the equation.”

That’s a real trade-off. A secret 12-year shoot is one kind of leap of faith. A publicly announced 20-year one, where fans and press check in on progress every year, is another kind of pressure entirely, for the director, the studio backing it and the actors committing to it.

Why ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ fits Linklater’s career

Long timelines and patient storytelling aren’t new territory for Linklater. His “Before” trilogy followed Jesse and Céline, played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, as a single day together grew into something lasting, filmed across separate movies over nearly two decades.

At Zurich, Linklater disputed Delpy’s claim that she was paid a tenth of Hawke’s salary on “Before Sunrise,” saying he pushed producers to pay her more and that she earned “a little less than Ethan but not much.” He and Hawke have been collaborating for more than 30 years; Linklater said they started talking the night they met and are “still talking.”

Linklater also has a track record of building careers rather than just casting them. He gave Matthew McConaughey his breakout in “Dazed and Confused,” when, as Linklater tells it, McConaughey had never acted in a movie, and he cast Parker Posey in the same film. His 1990 breakout “Slacker” established him as a filmmaker willing to do things his own way from the start, and that instinct hasn’t changed.

What’s next

Filming on the fourth section of “Merrily We Roll Along” begins in a few months, with five more sections still to go. Linklater’s “see you in 2040” line underscores how long a runway this project has left. For now, the update confirms the “Merrily We Roll Along” film hasn’t stalled, and that Mescal, Feldstein and Platt remain attached.

Source: Variety