Netflix Acquired Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Musical ‘Vivo’ From Sony Pictures Animation

Save for China, Netflix has acquired all worldwide rights to musical Vivo from Sony Pictures animations, Deadline has learned exclusively. Directed by Oscar nominee Kirk DeMicco (The Croods, Space Chimps) and co-directed by Brandon Jeffords (Smurfs: The Lost Village). Tony Award-winning Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote and performed the new songs. The release date was announced for June 4, but now that Netflix has snatched up the rights, the new release date is yet to be decided.

Deadline believes that with this deal after the film run on Netflix, Sony will maintain all home entertainment and linear TV rights to all other territories, including the theatrical release in China. Netflix’s latest licensing of Sony’s Vivo falls short of the streamer’s current multi-year $1 billion contracts with the studio in Culver City.

Deadline previously announced, the agreement begins in 2022 and includes an exclusive window for Sony’s theatrical titles to Netflix. Furthermore, the streamer has a first-look contract on any direct-to-streaming titles that Sony is considering.

Written by DeMicco and Pulitzer Prize winner Quiara Alegría Hudes follows Vivo, a one-of-a-kind kinkajou aka a rainforest “honey bear” (voiced by Miranda), who spends his days entertaining crowds in a bustling Havana square with his adoring owner Andrés (Buena Vista Social Club’s Juan de Marcos González). Though they may not speak the same language, Vivo and Andrés are the ideal duos through their shared love of music. But when disaster hits shortly after Andrés receives a letter from the famous Marta Sandoval (three-time Grammy winner Gloria Estefan), welcoming her old partner to her farewell concert in Miami in the hopes of reconnecting, it’s up to Vivo to send a message that Andrés never could: A long-forgotten love letter to Marta in the form of a song. To get to the distant shores of Miami, Vivo would need to welcome the assistance of Gabi (newcomer Ynairaly Simo), an ambitious tween who marches to the rhythm of her own offbeat drum.