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Warner Bros secures movie rights for Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical 'In the Heights' with $50 million bid

The bidding war for Miranda's 'In the Heights' has ended with Warner Bros emerging as the victor. However, it took a bid of $50 million to seal the deal

The movie rights for Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway musical In the Heights was the subject of a bidding war between multiple studios including the likes of Warner Bros, Fox, Paramount, Sony, Disney, Netflix, and Apple. According to Deadline, Warner Bros has now emerged as the victor after submitting a whopping $50 million bid.

Miranda wrote the music and lyrics for In the Heights and Quiara Alegría Hudes authored a book for the musical. The production was a runaway success, earning 13 Tony Award nominations and winning four. It was also nominated for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama when the movie rights were in the possession of the Weinstein Company.

Following Harvey Weinstein's implication in a barrage of sexual assault allegations in October last year after the New York Times published an exposé, the representatives of Miranda and Hudes reportedly worked to extricate the rights from the company. Hudes was outspoken with her opinion of wanting the film to have no association with the disgraced filmmaker and Miranda backed her stance.

After successfully winning back the movie rights, the auctions are said to have taken place in the first week of May. The project was pitched directly by the film's director, John M Chu, who was also joined by both Miranda and Hudes.

Deadline reported that studio executives got an early look at Hudes' script and that, in an attempt to win the bid, had their respective marketing departments pitch how they would market the film.

Warner Bros' winning bid will mean that they have to give the first-dollar gross to the filmmaking team.

The property was represented by Endeavor Content and the successful deal was eventually brokered by them. Anthony Bregman, Mara Jacobs, and Scott Sanders will serve as producers on the project but Miranda who played the starring role of Usnavi — a broke Washington Heights bodega owner — will not be reprising his role. He might, however, return in another role.