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#1

Rent - TV mini-series?

Was listening to "Assassins" and heard Neil Patrick Harris.

Looked up his bio to see what else he had done and found this interesting tidbit. It must have been mentioned on this board before, but I couldn't find it.

Based on his Los Angeles stage performance in the musical, he was attached to play Mark Cohen in a television mini series based on the Broadway musical, with Wilson Cruz as Angel, Rikki Lee Travolta as Roger Davis, and singer Shakira as Mimi, but the rights were pulled in order for Chris Columbus to make a film adaptation using much of the original Broadway cast including Anthony Rapp in the role of Mark.


Is it more fustrating for an actor not to get a part or to get a part, then have the production fall through?

Updated On: 10/20/06 at 03:36 PM

#2

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

This is the first time I heard about it - and I *know* about all recent tv/film movie musicals...
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
#3

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

Rumors about film and tv properties were going around for years. Spike Lee was set to direct the first film, with people like Justin Timberlake and Brittany Murphy in the cast.

When this was canned, a TV miniseries was indeed planned.
#4

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

All of those ideas suck. I don't think it was really intended to be made into a movie. It just doesn't lend itself to film.
#5

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

Idk i think it would be fun to explore their lives, but i don't think i would like the series if it had music in it
#6

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

BTW - I got this off his IMDB bio.

The Shakira role was the most interesting for me.

I know most Bway fans are less than happy with the movie, so the mini-series is probably less appealing.
#7

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

spell_the_line - no hun, not a sitcom series but a TV mini-series, a la Merlin, The Ten Commandments, and other TV films...
"The Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but, of all the parts, it is the least artistic, and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of Tragedy, we may be sure, is felt even apart from representation and actors. Besides, the production of spectacular effects depends more on the art of the stage machinist than on that of the poet."
--Aristotle
#8

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

The book Wicked has been tapped for a tv treatment too.

I think Shakira as Mimi would have been a fresh look at that character. Shakira is so different than Rosario and Daphane.

They should gotten JT to replace Adam. He was so gross in the movie.
#9

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

Since you brought up WICKED, I'll say this:
WICKED should've stayed a book.
No musical.
No play.
No movie.
No mini-series.
No series.
No cartoon.
No nothing!
#10

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

No doubt if they were to make rent a tv mini series, it probably be aired on NBC ch. 4( which I never watch).. They're a very liberal channel.
#11

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

I don't each it either, since we don't get Channel 4 in the states. And Channel 4 has to be liberal channel to air QAF.
#12

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

The whole thing flip flopped around through various hands for nearly ten years before the movie version we have now came into being. At one point, it was in talks to become a tv movie or miniseries. There's nothing untrue about that. Just like prior film versions, i.e. the Spike Lee version and others, it (clearly) never came to pass.

All of those ideas suck. I don't think it was really intended to be made into a movie. It just doesn't lend itself to film.

I'm tired of reading things that say what Larson's intentions with it were. At most basic, obviously it was, at the point he left it, intended for stage -- he wrote a musical to be put on stage; that's obvious. And I think it is certainly a piece that lends itself to film, in a general statement about the medium. Yeah, the existing film version has its problems, but the trouble with a piece like this "lending itself" to film isn't so much an issue of the material itself, IMO; it's an issue of how the adaptation is done. The stage show is perfectly adaptable; the product is just very dependent upon how
A work of art is an invitation to love.

Updated On: 10/20/06 at 06:16 PM

#13

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

NBC ch. 4

I think she means the New York NBC affiliate, not the British Channel 4.
"How do you like THAT 'misanthropic panache,' Mr. Goldstone?" - PalJoey
#15

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

CapnHook, just because you didn't know about it doesn't mean it's not true. Chris Columbus had mentioned the plans for the mini-series in many interviews about Rent, if you're looking for more proof than rumors amongst Rent fans.
Like a firework unexploded
Wanting life but never knowing how
#16

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

Yes, at one point it was going to be a mini-series and it was going for NBC. If you look at inteviews of Chris Colombus talking about the RENT FILM, he mentioned at one time, he too, heard that it was going to be a mini series and he jumped at the chance of doing the film beacuse he said that he did not want La Via Boheme to be like 30 seconds long. Beacuse if it was a mini series, it would have been cut down soo much!



"Now the best way to learn the theater, always, is to be a stage manager" -Stephen Sondheim
#17

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

Thank god. The movie has its imperfections, but a mini series? I don't even want to think about it...
"We're afraid to talk to you now, because anything we say causes you to burst into song." - My friends
#18

re: Rent - TV mini-series?

I can't even imagine what it'd be like.. but I feel like I'd be cringing while watching it.

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