Written by By Staff Writer
(CNN) — If you like a plot, you’ll love “Encore,” a feature-length film written and directed by one of Broadway’s top-notch writers, Lin-Manuel Miranda.
From author of “In the Heights” and creator of “Hamilton,” Miranda is easily one of the most acclaimed lyricists of his generation.
But “Encore” has nothing to do with his show. It is a film about a New York couple on a cross-country road trip (while traveling in the back of an armored truck) that’s out to raise money for a million-dollar bail to release a victim-of-crime suspect.
“Encore” was filmed earlier this year during an extended run on Broadway.
The real star of the film is the truck, an armored truck that was refurbished and converted into a sturdy mobile stage that becomes the couple’s home on the road.
Miranda started writing the film while he was on Broadway in “Hamilton.”
“Encore” isn’t the first film or musical musical, but it is the first self-funded production from Miranda.
He raised the roughly $400,000 needed for the film himself.
Miranda said people called in favors to help with the “Encore” project and even helped him to raise money for the truck for $50,000.
“Helping me is kind of a gift,” Miranda told CNN. “I always wanted to, when I was making the show, to make a movie out of it. I want to help people.”