ADAM PASCAL IN L.A. FOR THE RENT MOVIE — Page 5

Yes, case in point:

"You okay honey?"
"I'm afraid so."
"They get any money?"
"None to get it. But they purloined my coat!"

Some of the lines are changed to eliminate the rhyme, but as I read that particular slide, I found myself wondering why Columbus doesn't present "You Okay Honey?" as a song if he admires the rhymes so much. To his credit, he doesn't have Angel saying "Hell it's Christmas Eve" in response to Collins' "Well you missed a sleeve." But Columbus's contributions are hardly an improvement upon Chbosky's or Larson's. I think that the particular draft of the screenplay I read works best when Chbosky's dialogue is reproduced in full and the characters are just singing (one page contains "I'll Cover You: Reprise," which is staged the same way as it was in the Chbosky screenplay), but there are some weak moments for which Columbus is entirely to blame. Read: Angel's death is symbolized by the image of a T-cell being destroyed by HIV, and after Collins informs Benny that he has "just paid for the funeral of the man who killed his dog," Benny proposes that he, Mark and Collins all go out and get drunk. A bit of ill-timed levity there. Jeez. But I'm still impressed by the staging of some of the songs and Chbosky's dialogue.

No, it's not set in stone. It's an audition draft to which revisions are frequently made. (in fact, the dates of revisions are noted on the slides, and I'm guaranteed updates everytime Columbus makes more revisions)

I'm getting...nauseous.

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With four months till filming, I think some of those major problems will end up fixed -- by the actors, by the editors, and by people at Revolution giving Columbus feedback on the screenplay. It's quite normal for a first draft -- and for all we know, these are only "test pages" for people auditioning -- to be mediocre. "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," for instance, went through at least eleven.

Are they not called SIDES? I'm not being difficult just wondering if there's been another term for those god damn things all these years that totally flew by my head. Hmmm...

"Sides" is the correct term, Patrick. I was typing without my glasses on...

No, Tiff... the "sold your guitar" part is actually not in these slides. But I don't understand your qualm there. That part is spoken dialogue in the stage production, just with pauses and rhymes to make it more lyrical.

Updated On: 10/23/04 at 12:29 AM

Ak - I'm from B.C. Of course I've got something stronger.

Evelyn - I might be misunderstanding you here. What part of Goodbye Love is in the sides and which part are you saying remains dialogue? I know a bit of GL is spoken (more like yelled), I just have this impression of *everything* up until "bagge" being spoken, which makes me cringe.

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Got it. That might make more sense.

Any other updates from what you saw of the sides vs. the other script? (I'm just gonna mangle Chmblomgsehksj's name.)

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*still crying in corner*

That's what bugs me... it's Harry Potter all over again. Heart in the right place, but he just can't do it.

I never bought the casting breakdown of four Caucasians, two African-Americans and one African-American or Latino. That breakdown stands contradictory to the fact that at least one Latino has auditioned for Mark while at least one African-American woman has auditioned for Joanne.

But getting back to those sides: I don't think anyone reading my posts should be distraught over them. There is way too much for the people behind this film to accomplish between now and filming to insist that some audition sheets indicate that the project is doomed. Auditions are held for movies all the time with only a skeleton of the plot available. Titanic is the most successful example of this.

Updated On: 10/23/04 at 01:52 AM

RENT is my most anticipated film of 2005 but for the latter half of the year, I also have Memoirs of a Geisha, The Producers and the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to look forward to...

So in the face of disappoint, there will be alternatives.