The tick, tick… BOOM! Trailer Gets Autobiographical About Rent creator Jonathan Larson

Prepare to have some new songs from the mind behind “Seasons of Love” stuck in your head for the next year, because tick, tick… BOOM!, a new film based on the life of Rent creator Jonathan Larson, is coming out next month. The film is the feature directorial debut of Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, with a screenplay from Dear Evan Hansen writer Steven Levenson, and stars Andrew Garfield as Jonathan. Also in the cast are Vanessa Hudgens, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesús, Joshua Henry, Judith Light and Bradley Whitford.

When Rent hit Broadway in 1996, it was a sensation. The show earned a Tony Award for Best Musical, as well as a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. But the road to the stage wasn’t an easy one. In the film’s first trailer, we see Jonathan lamenting that he has been working on a musical for eight years while stuck in a less-than-glamorous job at a diner.

The trailer also gives some insight into the parallels between Larson’s life and his musical, a semi-autobiographical story about a group of poor young artists struggling to make ends meet in Manhattan in the 1980s amidst the AIDS crisis. Although we did get a film version of Rent in 2005, it’ll be exciting to finally get a behind-the-scenes look at what went into a show that has remained a critical part of our culture since its release.

Check out the trailer here:

tick, tick… BOOM! will have a limited theatrical release on November 12, then hit Netflix on November 19.