Richard Linklater's 'Merrily We Roll Along' Resumes Filming Within Months

Richard Linklater will resume filming his Stephen Sondheim adaptation of "Merrily We Roll Along" in a few months, he told the Zurich Film Festival — the fourth section of a planned nine-section shoot that will run until 2040.

"My progress report is this: It's nine sections in 20 years, and in a few months, we are filming a fourth," the director said during a masterclass at the festival, where he also accepted Zurich's Career Achievement Award. "So see you in 2040."

Linklater is shooting the musical with Paul Mescal, Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt over two decades, mirroring the story's decades-spanning timeline. The stage version, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez, won four Tony Awards, including Best Revival of a Musical.

Linklater admits he does not enjoy being asked about the project. "When I was doing 'Boyhood,' we worked in complete anonymity. No one knew about the film. This one, because it's a Stephen Sondheim musical, is very public. I will have to answer this question for 20 years while we are making it," he said.

He knows he is tempting fate. "That's the only way to tell this story, but people go: 'What if someone dies?' There's always some extreme thing that would prevent it from being made, but it usually doesn't happen. You've got to be collaborating with the future and just work that into the equation."

He has beaten the odds before. "Boyhood" was shot over 12 years. "And I'm hoping to get lucky again, but it's very different from 'Boyhood.' I've always made music films, and it's fun to be making a full-on musical. And it's about friendship, long-term."

Linklater rejects Julie Delpy's pay claim

The director also addressed Julie Delpy's claim that she was paid a tenth of Ethan Hawke's salary for "Before Sunrise," the 1995 first installment of the "Before" trilogy. "That's not true," he said.

"I actually remember fighting for it because I knew how hard the actors were going to have to work. I did have some producers saying: 'Oh, Julie has no American credits. We don't have to pay her that much – we can get her for scale.' Ethan wasn't getting much either, but I said: 'Let's get them closer.' It was definitely the most she's ever been paid. It was a little less than Ethan but not much."

At the time, neither actor commanded a major fee. "This actor is going to work so hard she doesn't even know it yet, so let's pay her, and both of them, as much as we possibly can. But no one was getting paid [much]. It's not that kind of movie."

Hawke's star was rising fast when Linklater cast him. "Sadly, River Phoenix had just passed away, and Ethan was the biggest star in his age range. He had 'Reality Bites' coming up, he had already been in 'Dead Poets.' I met him backstage [of his play] and we closed down the bar. We started talking that night and 40 years later we're still talking."

Linklater still made him audition. "He was kind of offended because he was getting offered everything. He says: 'Rick said I had to come audition. And he flew me coach!'"

Could a fourth "Before" film follow? "We just missed our nine year [slot] by a long shot. But never say never."

From 'Slacker' to star-maker

Accepting Zurich's Career Achievement Award, Linklater joked: "It's weird getting it, because 'career' and 'achievement' are two words I'm kind of dubious about. I always want to be that guy looking forward, and not back, but something like this gets you thinking."

Linklater broke out with "Slacker" in 1990, and Hollywood responded with unexpected enthusiasm. "They don't do that anymore. I had this weird film at Sundance that didn't even have a story, and I remember they flew me first class. I didn't know how to open the tray table, but I learned quickly," he said, recalling meetings that led to "Dazed and Confused."

For that film, he chose to "create stars" rather than cast established names. That included Matthew McConaughey, whose first impression underwhelmed him. "He's not right. He's too clean-cut. He was a fraternity brother at the University of Texas: firm handshake, male model good-looking, confident."

The audition changed his mind. "He told me: 'I'm not this guy, but I know this guy.' And then he just settled in and became that guy. I had this dark vision of a creep. Now, he's creepy but charming. He never acted in a movie, but some people just got it."

For Linklater, that is the essence of cinema: the "alchemical moment where the words on the page meet the person you cast and you see them start talking." He added: "It's like seeing a sculpture come alive."

If the schedule holds, audiences will watch that sculpture take shape in real time — with "Merrily We Roll Along" set to arrive nearly two decades after cameras first rolled.