Latebreaking RENT FILM CASTING NEWS — Page 33

I'm glad to hear that. I hoped the movie would adjust the way things were shown and make it more fitted to the big screen than the stage. It would be awkward and not terribly interesting cinematically if it was just a photocopy of the original. A movie is a different medium and it calls for a different presentation of songs.

Have you read or are you interested in the Chobsky script? I have it if you want to see it.

Updated On: 11/5/04 at 03:40 PM

Thanks, Anthony. That makes a lot of sense. I just finished reading the Chbosky script. I liked that you saw Roger singing in the club, because I felt like that scene gave the story a bit of history, but I didn't like that the band was singing "Rent." I felt like it was just a way to squeeze the song into the film because it belongs there, even though it's not in context. In that version, Another Day and Without You have flashbacks, too, which I thought had potential to work really well. Roger and Mimi were singing Another Day to each other still, but there were bits and pieces of their pasts/"baggage" fading in and out. Without You had that, too... though the script read as though Mimi was singing to Roger while they were in bed, which seems kind odd... oh well. Guess we can just wait and see!

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You mean you guys don't sing to people while in bed?

Sorry I'm just in a giddy mood...
Thanks for the news Anthony!

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Aww singing in bed, cute, kind of. Depends who they get to play MImi lol

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I had issues with the original Chbosky script. The fact that Maureen got basically all of Mark's lines in La Vie Boheme, the ballroom sequence for Tango (and even though it says 2000 on the script, all I kept getting were these Chicago flashbacks), and definitely the ending. The La Vie Boheme thing was bad enough for me.

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From Whiteboy Spice--

"I share your questions, in a way, but I'm reminded by the fact that Moulin Rouge did well, and those characters just jumped into song. Not having read all of Chbosy's script, I would sincerely hate it if some songs were performed in the film out of context; in a musical, songs are meant to tell the story, forward the action, and showing Roger sing "Rent" as a song his band is performing is a *much* different, and much less effective, context than using it as an expression of the *actual* moment he has found himself in.

Not knowing all of the other ways Chbosky worked in songs, that's the only one I can comment on. But I wonder if you can see my point?

By the way, Chris's script uses flashback effectively in "One Song Glory" (you see a bit of Roger and April together) and finds a very evocative way to express "Santa Fe" as the dream for a better life that that song is. "Tango: Maureen" has a fun dance fantasy sequence in the middle of it. So he has found ways to cinematize the songs that I think will be fun for audiences, but that don't dilute or compromise the context in which they were originally written."

-- wow i completely forgot about Moulin Rouge. I like that movie, didn't love it. The first 20 minutes were hard to watch. It gave me a headache. :)

If keeping the show in original context works - I will be one happy camper! If Columbus or Chbosky or whoever feels the need to take some liberties I am completely on board. The great thing about movies is that it has the abilities to show things that the live version can't. I guess also for me, those extra scenes are bonuses to RENT fans. You get to see more than just the musical shows you - a better look into the the lives of these people we have grown to love. I am like a kid on Christmas!

It sounds like the Tango Maureen is going to be done the same way - or similar to- how it is done in the 2000 script. I really enjoyed that.

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From Anthony's post, he wasn't happy about Rent being sung by Roger and his band at CBGB's and from the track list Anthony has given us and the fact he says the songs are all in context and very true to J. Larson's libretto, id expect to see very little of the original Chobsky script, yes Tango Maureen and Another Day were interesting interpretations, but there is so much bad dialogue in Chobsky's script that if they were to use which thank GOD they are not that the movie would suck big time, Roger singing Glory in a pawn shop where he works, Roger doesn't want to leave the apartment, how the hell does he go to work after the hell he's been through, and then going from Glory to horrible dialogue between him and Mimi when they first meet instead of Light My Candle is just foolish, they're are so many Alphabet city stereotypes and cliches in Chobsky's first draft it seems like he's NEVER been there - it made me sick, I lived in Alphabet city in the early 90's and trust me Chobsky did not capture it at all.

Did Larson?

I had a PM conversation with another board member who lived in the Village at the time and said that Rent wasn't at all like the real thing and that many people were insulted.

Right where the characters of Rent live.

Yeah Roger and Mark live on 11st and Ave B. The X-Mas tree junkyard art is on B between 5th and 6th and if you were to walk through tompkins square park, youd see the homeless, junkies and drug dealers at night, it used to be a very poor area of the city but like i said its been gentrified and is very different now. I never heard of people being insulted, but if they were, owell, its a play none the less and one that was premiered on Bdway in 1996; years after it was written.

Updated On: 11/6/04 at 11:50 PM

Was the song list posted on this thread?

I didn't read all of this or the Anthony Rapp Thread. I am so lazy right now. Can someone either list the songs or direct me where they are written down?

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Oh, and less any hysteria should result from that song list: Whiteboy later wrote that he had forgotten to include "Light My Candle" and "I Should Tell You" in his initial posting of the song list.