The 'Hamilton' film takes a step forward in a weird way

Let's hope they don't throw away their shot.

Given that tickets to see the popular music Hamilton cost, like, ten billion dollars, there has been one question that has been on everyone’s mind ever since the show debuted in 2015: when will we get a Hamilton movie?

Now, three years later, we’re actually seeing some progress on seeing Hamilton in theaters— in a pretty unexpected way.

Instead of fighting for rights to create a film adaptation of Hamilton, studios are in a bidding war for the rights to a recorded version that was taken during a performance of the musical.

The Wall Street Journal is saying that the price for this recording could be as high as $50 million.

This video was recorded in 2016, shortly after Lin-Manuel Miranda left the cast.

According to Variety, the sellers of this recording are also asking that it doesn’t play in theaters or stream online anywhere until 2020 or 2021.

This is…odd. I can’t remember a time when a studio ever releasing a live recording of a musical like this, so we’re in uncharted territory here.

A couple things: When I saw that Hamilton film was trending online, I got super excited because I thought the long-awaited adaptation we’ve been talking about was finally going to happen. This isn’t that and, to be perfectly honest, I would have preferred if the announcement had been about an adaptation — I still want to see a proper Hamilton movie made.

That being said, I’m one of those people who has been trying to find a Hamilton stream online for the past three years, as I don’t have a bank account to back-up my love of this musical. Being able to see a recorded version on the big screen is something I’d still love to do.

Yet, we have to wait another two or three years, so it’s a little confusing why the announcement is being made now. If they have the recording from 2016, why can’t they just release it, like, tomorrow?

Either way, I’ll still line up to see Hamilton in theaters in whatever form they give us.

What do you think of the news? Would you want to see a recorded version of Hamilton or do you wish they’d just make a proper movie? Let us know in the comments below!