Corey Hawkins to Play Benny in IN THE HEIGHTS Film

Corey Hawkins is set to play Benny in Jon M. Chu's feature adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda's four-time Tony winning musical In the Heights for Warner Bros, according to Deadline.

"In the Heights" is set in WASHINGTON HEIGHTS in New York City and focuses on a bodega owner who is closing his store and retiring to the Dominican Republic after inheriting his grandmother's fortune. It was previously announced that Anthony Ramos will star in the film as Usnavi, the character Miranda played during the Broadway run.

"In the Heights" will hit theaters on June 26, 2020, released by Warner Bros., who picked up the movie last month after a heated bidding war following the rights' release from The Weinstein Co. The film's script will be written by Quiara Alegría Hudes. Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) will direct the movie-musical. Anthony Bregman, Mara Jacobs and Scott Sanders are set to produce.

The Tony Award-winning musical IN THE HEIGHTS features music & lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda and book by Quiara Alegría Hudes. The show opened on Broadway production in March 2008 and was nominated for 13 Tony Awards, winning four: Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Choreography and Best Orchestrations. It won a Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album and was also nominated for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Hawkins, who is best known for starring in Straight Outta Compton, is a Julliard graduate. He starred on Broadway in Romeo & Juliet as Tybalt. He was also nominated in 2017 for a Tony Award for his role in Six Degrees of Separation. Hawkins has straddled film and theater work throughout the course of his career. He recently starred in Spike Lee's Oscar-nominated film BlacKkKlansman and just finishing filming Michael Bay's Netflix feature 6 Underground.

Read the original article on Deadline.