Richard Linklater’s Boyhood was a heart-warming, authentic drama that happened to have an enormous 12-year production period. That length of time was necessary because Linklater wanted to truly capture the growth of young actor Ellar Coltrane from boy to young man. It wasn’t that bizarre production fact that made the film special though. The movie was genuinely terrific, faithfully capturing the essence of young-adulthood. Thank God it was good! That’s a lot of time to spend making a movie.
But if Linklater has his way, an upcoming project will leave that timeline in the dust. Collider is reporting that the Texan filmmaker is looking to take on Merrily We Roll Along, an adaptation of the 1934 Stephen Sondheim play. The movie will allegedly star Ben Platt and Bernie Feldstein. Let’s hope they clear their schedules because apparently Linklater plans to spend 20 years shooting the film. That’s right, two decades. The LA Times says production has already begun and Linklater told them that he doesn’t “enter this multi-year experience lightly, but it seems the best, perhaps the only way, to do this story justice on film.”
So why will it take 20 years to shoot? That mammoth length is appropriate because Merrily is about a Broadway composer who abandons the stage to make movies in Hollywood. The format of the story goes backwards in time, meaning it starts with him as an older man and continually flashes further and further back in time to focus on important moments in his life over the last 20 years. So obviously Linklater, Platt and Feldstein would be filming the ending first with the two stars in their youth and then, 20 years from now, the beginning would be shot. That’s quite a tricky timeline. Somewhere Christopher Nolan is saying “Damn, why didn’t I think of that?”
Some will say that Linklater’s approach to the material is gimmicky but I think it’s refreshing. We too often forget that those in show business love to perform, try new things, push themselves for the craft. It’s not just about making movies, it’s about making art. This feels like an experiment of sorts, one that will challenge the performers and filmmakers and add an extra layer of truth to the story. Besides, if it’s anything like Boyhood the movie will be able to stand on its own.
I think it’s great to see Linklater and others wanting to try something so novel. Even after all his success, the director is looking to try new things and think outside the box. Here’s hoping we don’t have some sort of apocalyptic nuclear war before Merrily We Roll Along premieres! If anything can stop world leaders from ensuring our destruction, it’s a new film from Richard Linklater.