#1
Posted: 5/30/04 at 7:14pm
From a Canadian newspaper:
Sun, May 30, 2004
Rent & rave
Harry Potter filmmaker bringing Broadway musical to screen
By LOUIS B. HOBSON
HOLLYWOOD -- Filmmaker Chris Columbus has secured the rights to what he considers one very hot property. "I'm going to direct and write the screenplay for the film version of the Broadway musical Rent," says Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter movies.
"I have been obsessed with Rent for six years. It's the best musical I've ever seen. I think it's as timely, important and moving as it was when it debuted in New York in 1996."
He says he has no intentions of updating the musical.
"It has to be a period piece. It has to be set in the early days of the AIDS crisis."
Columbus says he hopes to begin shooting Rent on location in New York in December and January because the story is set in a New York slum over the Christmas holidays.
"We'll then move to soundstages in San Francisco, where I live, so I can be near my family."
Columbus, who has not cast the film yet, says he will be looking for singers who can act.
"The music is the important thing in Rent. The songs must be sung by trained singers."
He has already received word from several pop stars -- including Justin Timberlake -- who are interested in being part of the project. But Columbus isn't so sure.
"I think there is room for one or two pop stars in the cast, but I told Justin he will have to go through as rigorous an audition process as everyone else."
Sun, May 30, 2004
Rent & rave
Harry Potter filmmaker bringing Broadway musical to screen
By LOUIS B. HOBSON
HOLLYWOOD -- Filmmaker Chris Columbus has secured the rights to what he considers one very hot property. "I'm going to direct and write the screenplay for the film version of the Broadway musical Rent," says Columbus, who directed the first two Harry Potter movies.
"I have been obsessed with Rent for six years. It's the best musical I've ever seen. I think it's as timely, important and moving as it was when it debuted in New York in 1996."
He says he has no intentions of updating the musical.
"It has to be a period piece. It has to be set in the early days of the AIDS crisis."
Columbus says he hopes to begin shooting Rent on location in New York in December and January because the story is set in a New York slum over the Christmas holidays.
"We'll then move to soundstages in San Francisco, where I live, so I can be near my family."
Columbus, who has not cast the film yet, says he will be looking for singers who can act.
"The music is the important thing in Rent. The songs must be sung by trained singers."
He has already received word from several pop stars -- including Justin Timberlake -- who are interested in being part of the project. But Columbus isn't so sure.
"I think there is room for one or two pop stars in the cast, but I told Justin he will have to go through as rigorous an audition process as everyone else."
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