The IN THE HEIGHTS Film Adaptation Thread — Page 42

Nocredits said: "That's all beautifuland legit for sure, and Im glad these dancer are getting their shine. And the work is GOOD no doubt.But atthe end of the day the head of anentire department was a white man, meaning the buck stopped with him. Im not saying it should not have been white person to choreograph this film, I'm saying that way to many(mainly all) of the creative department heads were white leadership and white creative control.To me that is absolutely ridiculous for a movie about a specific culture of people."

At some point people stopped judging art by its quality, and started judging it by the circumstances surrounding its creation. It's so lazy. But for dumb people, it's the easiest way to criticize something. Much easier than engaging with it on an artistic level. Why be thoughtful about a piece of art when you can just tick through the ethnicities of the creators and judge it without even watching it at all?

Updated On: 6/20/21 at 07:59 PM

ctorres23 said: "Nocredits said: "That's all beautifuland legit for sure, and Im glad these dancer are getting their shine. And the work is GOOD no doubt.But atthe end of the day the head of anentire department was a white man, meaning the buck stopped with him. Im not saying it should not have been white person to choreograph this film, I'm saying that way to many(mainly all) of the creative department heads were white leadership and white creative control.To me that is absolutely ridiculous for a movie about a specific culture of people."

At some point people stopped judging art by its quality, and started judging it by the circumstances surrounding its creation. It's so lazy. But for dumb people, it's the easiest way to criticize something. Much easier than engaging with it on an artistic level. Why be thoughtful about a piece of art when you can just tick through the ethnicities of the creators and judge it without even watching it at all?"

So because I'm stating facts about the lack on inclusion that went into the making of this movie makes me dumb? Interesting. What you are saying is borderline ignorant. Not once in anything that I said, was a criticism of the movie itself. I am more than capable of engaging in that conversation if you want. All I was stating was the bigger picture of who has the monopoly of what gets made and the hypocrisy that follows it. So miss me with calling my arguments lazy and what not when you yourself had nothing to add of criticism of the piece itself... just an ignorant take on how latino centric stories will not make money in Hollywood. All you are doing is projecting that you are not willing or capable to engage in this kind of broader critic of "art by its quality". Which is fine...but don't then start name calling with someone you disagree with. Trust me; there is nothing 'easy' about constantly seeing lack of representation in a so called progressive world.

In media interviews, Jon M. Chu has spoken passionately about ''In the Heights'' and how he saw it onstage and instantly identified with Usnavi and growing up with an extended family of relatives. And for the record, the man who hired Chu to direct the big-screen adaptation was Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda told the L.A. Times: ''Honestly, of all the directors we talked to, Latino and non-Latino, he had the lived experience that was closest to the characters.'' Plus, ''Jon knew how to shoot the sh*t out of a dance number.''

Over a decade ago, Universal almost made ''In the Heights.'' Kenny Ortega was mentioned as the director. But Universal would not greenlight a $37 million budget unless the movie had a bankable Latino star, reportedly like Jennifer Lopez or Shakira. It did not want to bet on unknown actors. Years later, the directing duties fell to Chu, whose ''Crazy Rich Asians'' became a surprise box office hit ($26 million in the U.S. on its opening weekend). Chu made ''Asians'' a blockbuster with unknown actors and believed ''In the Heights'' could do the same for its Latino talent. Hindsight's 20-20. Who knows how ''In the Heights,'' directed by Ortega and starring Lopez, might've done? But the reality is that Miranda chose Chu and loves the Warner Bros. movie they made. It's been a critical success: 96% raves at Rotten Tomatoes. Why more filmgoers aren't flocking to see it is another issue and probably complicated by various factors: not everyone loves musicals, lack of big stars, COVID fears, HBO Max, etc.

It's silly to blame Miranda and Chu's ''egos'' for ''getting in the way of a good marketing campaign.'' ''In the Heights' '' biggest selling points ARE that it comes from Miranda, who created the Tony-winning musical and pop-culture phenomena that is ''Hamilton,'' and Chu, who directed ''Crazy Rich Asians,'' which grossed $238 million worldwide. How ELSE would you market it?

Updated On: 6/20/21 at 11:09 PM

I guess on the positive side in terms of upcoming Latinx representation in movie musicals, there is also 'West Side Story' and the Camila Cabello 'Cinderella'. Not a huge number of films, and undoubtedly neither will score perfectly with everybody when it comes to representation, but together with 'In The Heights' these form a decent proportion of the movie musicals coming out this year.

My own armchair analysis/prediction is that both WSS and Cinderella will do better business than ITH (well, proportionately better in the case of Cinderella perhaps, given its limited release situation), partly because both properties are instantly recognisable as having good plots. I think that's one of the keys thing that ITH is missing for those who don't know it. (And also for some of us who do know it, if I'm being honest...)

theatreguy12 said: "To those questioning the representation behind the scenes, is there evidence that the creatives actually saw some large number of artists who fit theserepresentativeexpectations, but purposely did not hire them?

Or is it simply possiblethat maybe members of this representative groupjust didn't applyin the first place?

If it's the former, then yes, I can see apologies being in order. Ifit's the latter it becomes a moot point. If they're not applying for the job in the first place, I can't see the creatives being expected tojust go out on the street and pull inpeople just to be representational.



I have a friend who has worked in Hollywood for years and she has said that cries for equal representation have beenthere for quite some time. But if you don't have people applying for these jobs who meet those representational requirements in the first place, what are they supposed to do?"



The film industry is the ULTIMATE who you know industry. Meaning folks really don't "apply" of jobs when it comes to working on a movie, especially for creative department heads on big ones like ITH . Producers and UPMs know who they want and seek them out. There was NO application process for any of the creative heads job for this movie. Trust: if a Job posting went out saying: "seeking cinematographer for in the heights" you bet there would have been 96,000+ applications from folks of color, but it does not work that way. It's really a "I'm going to hire my buddy" type of business(in the case of ITH although talented, lot's of those buddies were white people). Even on a big movie like this, the below the line crew members don't even apply for their positions, it's offered and then that's it. Remember film industry is HEAVILY unionized all around. On a related not; when it comes to lack of people of color applying to job positions in the film industry (if it even rarely happens), yes it can be very low turnout, but it is not due to lack of interest it's due to lack of want from the folks doing the hiring. The film industry is a very closed net group of people(you see a lot of the same people in departments always working together) it is not very welcoming to outsiders of any kind.

The second weekend box office drop-off is just tragic at this point. As per Variety:

"Elsewhere on box office charts, “In the Heights,” director Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit Broadway musical, failed to sustain crowds in its second weekend of release. The film fell to the No. 6 spot with $4.3 million in revenues from 3,509 theaters, a brutal 62% decline from its inaugural outing. “In the Heights,” which is currently playing on HBO Max, has amassed $19.8 million on the big screen to date. It hasn’t fared much better with international audiences. The movie has been released in 31 overseas markets and foreign ticket sales have barely surpassed $2.1 million. At this rate, despite glowing reviews, the $55 million-budgeted movie will struggle to climb out of the red."

Nocredits said: "I never said these positions should have been a latinoman I said latino. Period. Man, women or non binary. You assuming I meant man says a lot more about your misinterpretation of the meaning ofprogression especially in an artistic formant."

I didn't assume you meant man, I correctly identified that the ethnicity of the cinematographer was more important to you than the gender. You just confirmed that's true - you don't care if the cinematographer is "man, woman, or non binary". So the obvious implication is that you would be more willing to accept a Latino male cinematographer than what we actually got, which was a white female.

It's fine for you to champion one demographic over another, just be honest with yourself that you'd willingly suppress female diversity if it meant that Latinos had more representation behind the camera.

Nocredits said: "which is a shame for a movie like this."

Once again, "perfect is the enemy of good". When you say "a movie like this", you mean a movie about Latino culture with Latino stars, written by someone with Latino heritage. Movies like this do not get made with any regularity. Some studio executive took the risk to greenlight this with a big budget and summer release in 3000+ theaters, and instead of shouting from the rooftops about this massive progress for Latino culture in mainstream entertainment, you are literally in here complaining about the cinematographer, choreographer and other creative's ethnicities.

This kind of response will chill any future studio exec from greenlighting a movie like this. The studio execs will say to themselves, "I get to make $0 and I can have people yell at me because the costume designer is white? No thanks, let's make Deadpool 12 instead."

everythingtaboo said: "The second weekend box office drop-off is just tragic at this point."

When all is said and done, In the Heights is going to make less money than Cats. And honestly, we all deserve this outcome. Cats was a bad movie, but no one had to apologize for it.

Updated On: 6/21/21 at 12:12 PM

Nocredits said: "No one is looking for perfect. Folks are just looking for their shot to do good work.You're telling onyourselfbecause you can't keep your argument straight at all. You're the one propagandizing the news about how this movie is a flop and studio execs will not take the risk on this type of things for years to come and blah blah blah...but yet, tomake yourshaky point to try and prove me wrong, you say this film is "massive progress for the Latino culture and mainstream entertainment". So which is it? You're making the argument to folks of color that we should just shut up and be grateful for what we get..."

Just preserving this for future generations. A+

I'll make my argument much shorter: taking a stand onthis particular movieis counterproductive to your ultimate goal. I think we both want the same thing, in an abstract sense, but the way you're doing it, by calling out this movie and making it a point of contention, is hurting your goal more than helping it.

Once again; that is a backwards way of thinking. The pressure and responsibility of achieving a meritocracy of fairness and diversity in the arts are not on the people who are the very ones being left out to dry. That responsibility is on the powers that be! It's not my responsibility to make someone change their ways...they got to do the work themselves. That's like saying: 'poor people will never make a decent living if they keep calling out income inequality'. My burden, (outside of just trying to survive in the world as a person of color) as it stands now, is to be aware of what the issues are, bring them to the attention of the powers that be and be prepared for when my time and opportunity comes to step up. You really think if no one said anything at all and just shut up and take what they got that that would be the solution? Cause that's basically what you are saying. If I say nothing at all and just kept it to myself, the next time this comes around things will be better...No. Progress starts from the people who make the noise about things that just aren't right and the discourse that follows. Then it's up to the ones in control to take the next step forward. Once again..nothing can nor will be perfect but at a certain point people need to take the blinders off and try to see the world for the beautiful potential it could be...instead of letting things just stay the way they are because clearly its not working. And at this stage of the game; we should be doing much better. Of course I am putting all of this in the context of art and Entertainment. All I am doing is calling truth to power... and in your world telling the truth is "counterproductive".

broadwaybabywannabe2 said: "if the powers that be had only treated IN THE HEIGHTS as more of a fairy tail like ENCHANTED...then maybe more would have shown up...instead to my way of thinking,all the young women look like over done sluts..."

wtffffff

"people like you create controversy around Latino-centric films..." and more BS to follow...

Right; cause it was MY decision to white wash ITH. The folks who took issues like I did,were the ones to decided to white wash ITH. 'Look at those black folks in the south "creating controversy" over not being able to vote.'..A small niche community of people who do not feel seen or heard single handily took down Warner Brothers and any other latino centric movies to follow.

Your verbiage, mindset and false propaganda is problematic and destructive more so than anything I had pointed out in truth and honesty. Your failure to understand what I was addressing and how it was an issue shows in your inconsistent and condescending points you are trying to make. First you blamed he box office disappointment on the movie being about latinos, now you are blaming it on people who called attention to the misrepresentation both on screen and behind the screen. So which is it?!?

So thank you for being "done talking about this" because that shows you have certain privilege to being only tired of "talking" about this...while the rest of have to live it.

hork said: "theatregoer3 said: "Based on the choice of the director I can see this going the way of the Rent movie wherein they had no idea how to translate it or give it a reason to exist so they just created physical movement wherever possible (singing on a bike or walking down the street or adding a chorus of dancers!) to essentially make a reason for its existence and to make it stand out from the stage version. Of course, it was a total disaster and I can't get through it no matter how hard I try.



A visionary director is needed. By that I mean someone who is an artist in their own right. For example, when Spike Lee was slated to direct Rent I thought, "Now this makes sense. This will be GREAT." Columbus and Chu aren't very original and their projects tend to lack and creativity or cohesive vision. Remember the Harry Potter movies? The first two were so basic and then when they finally brought in a visionary director for the third it really lifted the whole series into another world that people of all ages could appreciate.

I couldn't agree more. In fact, since you brought up Spike Lee, I think he'd be the perfect director for In the Heights. But, alas, visionaries don't direct Broadway musical adaptations.

"In hindsight. This was posted in 2016. If only. My reaction after seeing the movie: With this movie and Crazy Rich Asians, Jon M. Chu has perpetuated and reinforced two notoriously popular stereotypes in American culture about two minority groups: Asians smart and rich, Latinos poor.

broadwaybabywannabe2 said: "if the powers that be had only treated IN THE HEIGHTS as more of a fairy tail like ENCHANTED...then maybe more would have shown up...instead to my way of thinking,all the young women look like over done sluts...while the men look just ordinary...nice misogyny maybe?...that opening dance number looked like every dancer in NYC was asked to participate and there didn't seem to be any "real" people dancing in the streets...and the scene in the beauty shop looked like the TV show Claws...in other words, heightened to the unrealistic max!!...i am glad i did not pay to see this...HBO MAX. makes it easy to walk away from it..."

Your way of thinking is horrific. Walk away from this thread.