RENT movie — Page 3

Chris Columbus' directing credits (courtesy of www.imdb.com)


Rent (2004) (in production)
NFL Dad (2004) (announced)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
Bicentennial Man (1999)
Stepmom (1998
Nine Months (1995)
Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Only the Lonely (1991)
Home Alone (1990)
Heartbreak Hotel (1988
Adventures in Babysitting (1987)

I really like Columbus' films. Sorry, but looking at that list, the only one I really didn't care for was Bicentenial Man. He's never done anything like RENT before, but that doesn't mean he can't do it. Until I was 16, I hadn't driven a car, but that didn't mean I couldn't do it. Give him a chance. Because, hey! You don't have a choice!!

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Updated On: 7/5/04 at 02:11 PM

Spike Lee's producing? Why not directing? He'd be PERFECT
I hear Spike Lee's shooting down the street

Cold hands

At the risk of sounding racist, I dont think Lee would be good for this because the material isn't "black" enough for him. He's good at edgy, urban stories of African-Americans, but he just cant seem to find his way with handling caucasian or hispanic actors with any sense of style beyond "shallow at best". Check out how he handles the ensemble in "Do the Right Thing", and you'll see what I mean.

Columbus? A completely insipid choice, for my money. The last thing I want to see is "Harry Potter and the Winter of Our Discontent". My own choice would be Alfonso Cuaron, who not only directed the new HP movie but also the brilliant Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN. This guy knows how to work a young cast in darkly visual ways. Now there would have been the perfect director.

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But Matt_G, I'm frightened

>> How about everyone shutting up about what he "might" do and "could" do and wait to see what he WILL do

All well and good, Matt, but every director, after a while, has a certain style you can see coming from that proverbial mile away. Columbus is good in his own element, but his tackling something as dark and urbane as RENT? Sorry, friend, cant see it. It'd be like Cukor doing an action flick.

Now sure, he may surprise us all and blow this thing right out of the water, and if so, good for him. But on the basis of what I've seen of his work to date, I find his style and the style of RENT to be pretty far apart.

And just because the guy may be good doesn't guarantee a good film. Can anyone say "the film version of A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC"?

So that's my opinion. Take it or leave it. I'm open to being corrected, but Columbus directing RENT raises a whole field of red flags.

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Yeah but he directed "The Terminal."

"The Terminal" was a 2 hour 15 minute romantic comedy. That doesn't work very well. People went to "Dodgeball" instead.

>> Now, looking at those films would you think Steven Spielberg would be capable of directing a piece as heavy as PURPLE?

Actually? Yes, because those early films demonstrate an ability to bring real characters out of what are essentially cartoon situations. We come to care about these folks, whether they're battling great white sharks or tombs full of snakes or aliens buzzing the Utah landscape. Couple that with his inerrant visual sense and he seems a great, if not inspired, choice for PURPLE.

But look at the list for Columbus' work to date: they're all what I would call "bright colour" work. They're all well done, but they all have a definite vision that's... well, the right word escapes me at the moment, so I'll have to settle for the somewhat lame "happy". They're very loving films, very filmic situation comedies -- even his approach to the POTTER films was more childlike than anything else (and I mean that in the sense of the material, not a judgment call on his work): you had scary creatures, but, with one exception, they weren't threatening. They were fun. He comes closest to handling the dark side with the giant snake in CHAMBER OF SECRETS, but everything else? A light touch all around. Hell, look at the Kidditch game in the second film, where Harry is trying to avoid getting killed by a flying bomb: it comes across more like a proposal for a theme park ride than an actual life-threatening situation.

My bet with RENT is that he'll go for the slash-edit as much as possible. The dramatic scenes will be... okay, but not as deeply felt as they could have been in someone else's hands because he's not that good at scenes with deeply felt emotion (Look at some of the final scenes of MRS DOUBTFIRE, where contrivance takes precedent over real emotion).

Bottom line: it'll be professionally done. But it wont be a bullseye.

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Kidditch? I think you mean Quidditch

No, I can handle serious critiques, but you're critiquing a work that hasn't even been made yet! Does nobody else get how ridiculous that is??

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Triple post

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Updated On: 7/5/04 at 03:55 PM

>> No, I can handle serious critiques, but you're critiquing a work that hasn't even been made yet! Does nobody else get how ridiculous that is??

We do it all the time. Kerry isn't president (yet), and already people are deciding how good a job he'll do. These boards are filled with folks expressing their opinion over who would and would not be an acceptable casting choice. If you cant handle someone expressing an opinion about the viability of a certain professional to handle a particular job, then... well, at trhe risk of sounding blunt my second day here, tough. Get over it and move on. But just because you find it "ridiculous" isn't, I'm sorry to say, sufficient reason for me to change how I feel about this as I do.

Now. I've posted some fairly solid reasons why, IMHO, I happen to think Columbus is the wrong choice for this film. Counter them, if you feel you must. But to dismiss them with a personal attack because you can't write anything else isn't doing much for your argument, friend.

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Updated On: 7/5/04 at 03:59 PM