Exuberant New 'In The Heights' Trailers Are What We Need Until Its June 18th Release arrow ANTHONY RAMOS as Usnavi and MELISSA BARRERA as Vanessa in "In the Heights" Macall Polay / Warner Bros. On Sunday night, as everyone begrudgingly adjusted to Daylight Saving Time and braced themselves for the sub-freezing weather this week (it's Fool's Spring in NYC, y'all), we got a little bit of sunshine in the form of two new trailers for Lin-Manuel Miranda's In The Heights. The movie, directed by Jon Chu ( Crazy Rich Asians), is based on Miranda's 2008 Broadway musical about residents in Washington Heights—where he grew up. It focuses on two young men, Benny and Usnavi, and two young women, Vanessa and Nina; their dreams; and the dreams of their families and neighbors.