Tony Award-winning writer and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda is set to direct a film adaptation of “Octet,” the a cappella musical by Obie Award winner and Tony nominee Dave Malloy. The film, which will be Miranda’s second film adaptation of a stage musical after 2021’s “Tick, Tick… Boom!” is currently in development at Miranda’s 5000 Broadway Productions.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about Octet since I saw Annie Tippe’s premiere production in November of 2019,” said Miranda in a statement, “Dave Malloy’s score is versatile, brilliant and grows more relevant with each passing year. It won’t leave me alone so here we are.”
Malloy, who also wrote the Tony-nominated “Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812,” will adapt his own book for the film version of “Octet,” which centers on a group of eight people in an internet addiction support group sharing their relationships to and experiences of online life.
The musical, which features no instrumentation, premiered Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre in 2019 with direction and choreography by Tippe. A replica production came to California’s Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2022, followed by new regional productions at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in 2023, Toronto in 2025 and Washington, D.C. in 2026. A new production will open later this month at Chicago’s Raven Theatre.
The film adaptation will be produced by Julie Oh, newly appointed head of film and TV at 5000 Broadway, along with John Skidmore for Best Kept Secret Productions, producer of numerous scripted television series, stand-up specials and variety shows. Oh also produced “Tick, Tick… Boom!” with Imagine Entertainment, and oversaw the film’s acquisition by Netflix.
Oh said in a statement, “Working together with Lin-Manuel Miranda is both creatively exciting and completely delightful. The art of making art is putting it together bit by bit and every bit of work that we have done together thus far has been a dream come true. I am grateful for the opportunity to lead film and TV for 5000 Broadway Productions and work with Luis Miranda and the team to build a cinematic home where singular projects like ‘Octet’ can thrive.”
Founded by Skidmore, Best Kept Secret’s television and streaming credits include “Broad City,” “Russian Doll” and Sarah Silverman’s Emmy Award-, Golden Globe- and Grammy Award-nominated special “PostMortem.” It also previously produced a filmed version of comedian Mike Birbiglia’s solo show “The Old Man & the Pool,” which ran at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater from November 2022 to January 2023.
Executive producers of “Octet” will include Johnny Holland, Owen Panettieri and Diana DiMenna. Holland has produced the feature films “Friendship,” “Dumb Money” and “Fire Island.” Before producing “Tick, Tick… Boom!” Panettieri served as an assistant to Miranda, including on the film adaptation of “In the Heights” and the filmed version of “Hamilton.” DiMenna previously produced the filmed versions of “Girl from the North Country” and “What the Constitution Means to Me.”
Sander Jacobs, Caren Jacobs, Jeffrey Seller, TodayTix Group, Teresa Tsai and John Gore for Broadway.com will executive produce and finance the “Octet” film. Sander Jacobs and Seller are the Tony-winning producers of Miranda’s “Hamilton” and “In the Heights.” Seller also won Tonys for the original Broadway productions of “Rent” and “Avenue Q,” in addition to the 2002 revival of “Private Lives.” Ticketing platform TodayTix has produced “The Old Man & the Pool,” “Good Night and Good Luck,” “Call Me Izzy” and the Tony-nominated 2023 revival of “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window.” Tsai is credited on Main Stem productions of “Sea Wall/A Life” and “Back to the Future: The Musical.” The John Gore Organization, owned by Gore and the parent company of Broadway News, is a producer of numerous past and present Broadway productions, including Tony winners “Maybe Happy Ending,” “Stereophonic” and the 2023 revival of “Parade.”
