Rising High & Hard

Rising High & Hard would be a 2024 American musical drama film written and directed by Ryan Coogler, and produced by Coogler, Will Smith, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Marc Platt. Produced by Searchlight Pictures, the film would star Smith, Miranda, Tom Hiddleston, Letita Wrigth, ad Lupita Nyong'o. The film would focus on a succesful buisness man (Smith) telling to a younger man (Miranda) about his struggles in life while becoming succesful. Miranda would also co-write the film's songs alongside Alan Menken, while the score would be composed by Menken.

Development on the film would begin in early 2022, with Coogler being set to write and produce the film. Coogler would sign up to direct the film in mid-2022, while Smith and Miranda would be cast in the lead roles. Production on the film would take place between February and April 2023. Smith would be digitally de-aged during post-production due to his character's role in the film.

Rising High & Hard would be released on February 1, 2024, and would met critical acclaim, with critics praising the film's direction, screenplay, themes, musical numbers, and performances. The film would also become a commercial success, earning 1.3 billion dollars at the box office, over a budget of 95 millions, becomig the hightest-grossing film directed by a black director, on par with Coogler's Black Panther (2018).

Synopsis
A businessman named Lewis Johnson discovers that a personal friend of his, Mark Page, actually dreamed a different life, but that he gave up on his dream after struggling to make it real. Appalled at this actitude, Johnson takes him to his manor. Hoping to teach him to never give up on his dreams, Johnson tell to Page the story of his life: As a young man, Johnson came to New York City hoping to become a successful businessman, as he showed great talent at business since he was a kid. However, he ended up facing a great threat to his dream, forcing him to fight hard to make it true.

Cast

 * Will Smith as Lewis Johnson: A successful business man who explains his truggles to fulfill his dream to a friend of his. His name would be inspired by African-American businessmans Reginald Lewis and John H. Johnson. Smith would improvise several scenes during filming, which director Ryan Coogler would say would be in order to "bring up some humor to the film". Smith would describe the younger version of his character as "an optimist with a witty sense of humor who has a lot of confidence and dosen't care about what people think of him", while he would describe his older self as "a man who gained wisdom througth experience, but that still has his sense of humor".
 * Lin-Manuel Miranda as Mark Page, a friend of Johnson who attempted a career at Broadway, but failed due to multiple problems while trying to achieve the dream, causing him to give up, only for Johnson to tell him his life to teach him to never give up. His name would be inspired by businessmans Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page.
 * Tom Hiddleston as Jeff Elison, a racist business man in the 80s who mistreated Johnson due to his color skin. His name would be inspired by businessmans Jeff Brezos and Lawrance J. Ellison. Coogler would cast Hiddleston in the role due to his performance as Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
 * Letita Wright as Jane, an employee of Elison's who is well aware of his racism. Wright would describe the character as "the opposite to Johnson", since "[s]he experienced firsthand how the world works, in both its good and bad styles and, thanks to that, she's kinda more realistic and down-to-earth".
 * Lupita Nyong'o as Martha: Leis Johnson's mother, who had to raise her son on her own. Coogler would describe the character as "the source of Johnson's optimism" and "his conscience in times of need, yet still showing a lot of independance", while Nyong'o would say that "she everything about her son, probably even more than him, so she isn't afraid to do things he dosen't want her to do if its to help him" and would describe her as "someone whose independence and unability to give up and hold her tongue are more of an advantage to everyone".

Music
Alan Menken would compose the film's score. Menken would describe his score as "an emotional instrument that reflects the story told in the film" and would drawn inspiration from John Debney's score for Jobs (2013). Menken would describe his theme for Johnson as "the kind of sound for a man who is destined to success".

Menken would also co-write the film's songs alongside producer and star Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda and Menken would work closely with Coogler in order to determine which moments in the film would be fit for a song. Miranda would describe his songs as "kind of a middle point" between his songs for the play In rhe Heights and the film Moana (2016). Miranda and co-star Will Smith would also perform a song for the film's credits.

Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film would have an approval rating of 99%, with an average rating of 8/10, based on 300 critics. The website's critical consensus would read, "A timely and inspirational tale, Ryan Coogler's Rising High & Hard tells to the audience a wonderful story with wonderful songs, great performance, and a supringsly deep thematical sensibility". On Metacritic, the film would have a weighted rating of 88 out of 100 based on 50 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Trivia

 * The film would be Ryan Coogler's first musical film.
 * The film would mark the second tme Lupita Nyong'o and Letita Wright's second time working on a film directed by Ryan Coogler, after Black Panther (2018).
 * This would be the second time Alan Menken and Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote songs for a film, after The Little Mermaid.