2021 has certainly not been short on musicals from Jon M. Chu's In The Heights, Stephen Chbosky's Dear Evan Hansen, Leos Carax's Annette, Lin Manuel-Miranda's Tick Tick Boom, and of course Steven Spielberg's West Side Story. The year will conclude with acclaimed director Joe Wright's take on the Hollywood musical with Cyrano starring Game Of Thrones star Peter Dinklage.
Wright has directed a wide range of films from adapting classic literary works such as Pride & Prejudice and Anna Karenina, prestige Oscar-winners like Atonement and Darkest Hour, a feel-good crowd-pleaser in the form of The Soloist, a gritty action-thriller with Hanna, the big-budget family blockbuster Pan, and the pulpy thriller The Woman In The Window. He also directed the highly acclaimed Black Mirror Season 3 episode "Nosedive." With Cyrano, Wright will attempt to harken back to the classic MGM musicals of yesteryear.
When Does Cyrano Release?
After initially being scheduled for limited release on Christmas Day before being moved to New Year's Eve, Cyrano will now have an Oscar-qualifying one-week theatrical in Los Angeles on December 17. The film will then have a limited release on January 22, 2022 before expanding in the following weeks. So if you were wanting to do a Christmas double feature with fellow musical West Side Story, you may be out of luck unless you live in the Los Angeles area. Cyrano arrives in UK theaters on January 12.
Watch the Cyrano Trailer
For those who may not have already seen it, here's the first official trailer for Cyrano. The trailer gives us a good glimpse at the film's gorgeous set design and musical numbers while letting us know of the classic story of Cyrano de Bergerac. The trailer is set to one of the film's original songs "Someone To Say" which is written by members of the band The National.
Listen to Songs From the Soundtrack
The Cyrano soundtrack features cast vocal performances from Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Glen Hansard with music from the London Contemporary Orchestra and renowned pianist Víkingur Ólafsson. You can listen to the first released song from the soundtrack, "Someone to Say," in the video embed below.
You can also watch Dinklage perform another song from the soundtrack, "Your Name," alongside Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner on a recent The Late Show with Stephen Colbert appearance.
To pre-order the soundtrack or listen to currently released songs, head over to the official website.
What Is Cyrano About?
Cyrano is an adaptation of the stage musical of the same name written by Erica Schmidt (Dinklage's wife), which in turn is based on the classic 1897 play written by Edmond Rostand. The story follows the titular Cyrano de Bergerac, a talented writer and poet who expresses self-doubt because of his physical appearance. Cyrano is madly in love with his friend Roxanne, but unfortunately for the poet, she's in love with someone else: Christian, a dashing young soldier who has the looks but has little confidence in his words.
Cyrano and Christian soon come to an agreement, Cyrano will ghostwrite love letters and poems to Roxanne for Jack. Combining Cyrano's words with Jack's looks while assisting each other in overcoming their own insecurities about themselves.
Cyrano clearly has the classicly romantic story to make for a musical that will likely harken back to MGM's golden age of musical blockbusters. While this is far from the first time this story has been told on screen: the Steve Martin-Daryl Hannah film Roxanne comes to mind, but the musical setting will likely help the film stand out from the fray.
Who Is In Cyrano?
Dinklage stars in the title role of Cyrano de Bergerac, a role that he originated in the off-Broadway musical production written by Schmidt. Dinklage has quite the pedigree and has appeared in countless popular movies and television shows. Arguably his most famous role is that of Tyrion Lannister in the hugely popular HBO series Game Of Thrones, a role which landed him 4 Emmy wins. He has also appeared in the superhero blockbusters Avenger: Infinity War where he play Eitri and X-Men: Days Of Future Past where he played Dr. Boliver Trask. Dinklage also starred in the controversial Oscar-Winner Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the pitch-black crime comedy I Care A Lot, the critically reviled sci-fi action-comedy Pixels, the holiday favorite Elf, and both the British and American versions of the comedy Death At The Funeral. He has also provided his vocal talents to animated films from the likes of The Croods: A New Age, The Angry Birds Movie as well as its respective sequel, and Ice Age: Continental Drift.
After Cyrano, Dinklage will be moving on to star in The Toxic Avenger remake at Legendary with director Macon Blair and the comedy Brothers where he'll be starring alongside Josh Brolin, Glenn Close, and the internet's boyfriend Brendan Fraser, from Palm Springs director Max Barbakow.
Haley Bennett will be talking on the role of Roxanne, which she also originated from the off-Broadway production starring Dinklage. Bennett has been on the cusp of stardom for quite some time having shown up in Antoine Fuqua's big-budget remake of The Magnificent Seven alongside bigwigs Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, and Ethan Hawke. She also had a major role in Tate Taylor's big-screen adaptation of The Girl On The Train where she starred opposite Emily Blunt, Rebecca Ferguson, Luke Evans, and Justin Theroux. Next up for Bennett is Eli Roth's highly anticipated film adaptation of the video game series Borderlands where she'll be joining Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jack Black.
Kelvin Harrison Jr will be playing Christian, who unlike Dinklage and Bennett was not part of the off-Broadway production. Harrison has become a major rising star in Hollywood having starred in indie hits such as Julius Avery's Luce where he acted against Octavia Spencer and Naomi Watts, he also had a major role in Trey Edward Shults' family drama Waves which also featured Sterling K. Brown, Taylor Russell, Renee Ellis Goldsberry, and Lucas Hedges. He also had a small role in last year's Oscar contender The Trial Of The Chicago 7 from Aaron Sorkin. Next up for Harrison are his two biggest projects to date, he'll be joining Baz Luhrmann's Elvis alongside Tom Hanks and Austin Butler as the King himself. He has also boarded Oscar Winner Barry Jenkins' Lion King prequel at Disney where he'll voice Scar opposite Aaron Pierre's Mufasa.
The rest of the cast of Cyrano includes Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Captain Marvel star Ben Mendelsohn as De Guiche, Bashir Salahuddin as Le Bret and Ray Strachan as La Rae. Brian Tyree Henry was initially cast in the role of Le Bret before later being replaced by Salahuddin. That's quite the promising cast for Cyrano which can certainly help it gain more attention.
When (and Where) Was Cyrano Filmed?
Unlike some of the other films releasing this holiday season, Cyrano's release was not affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic. The musical was announced back in August 2020 and shortly went into production two months later in October. Filming took place in Sicily, Italy under strict COVID protocols. Wright revealed to Vanity Fair that all the singing in the film was done live, which has become a trend with many recent musical films.
What's Next For Joe Wright?
Wright typically always has something on his plate, in fact, Cyrano is his second film of 2021. Next up for Wright is the drama Stoner starring Academy Award winner Casey Affleck in the title role with Jason Blum producing. There's also In The Garden Of Beasts an adaptation of the best-selling nonfiction novel by Erik Larson with America's dad and two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks starring in the lead role of William Dodd.