Rent - TV mini-series?

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 3:36pm

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

[CapnHook]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 4:53pm

This is the first time I heard about it - and I *know* about all recent tv/film movie musicals...

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 4:56pm

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.

[RentBoy86]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 5:00pm

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.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 5:04pm

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

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 5:12pm

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.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 5:30pm

spell_the_line - no hun, not a sitcom series but a TV mini-series, a la Merlin, The Ten Commandments, and other TV films...

[mejusthavingfun]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 5:36pm

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.

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 5:41pm

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!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 6:02pm

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.

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 6:10pm

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.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 6:16pm

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

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

[Kringas]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 6:22pm

NBC ch. 4

I think she means the New York NBC affiliate, not the British Channel 4.

[Fiction Writer]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 6:23pm

Oops.
I didn't read the NBC part.
My bad.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 6:50pm

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.

[Jovie24]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 6:51pm

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!

[Taryn2]

Posted: 10/20/06 at 7:17pm

Thank god. The movie has its imperfections, but a mini series? I don't even want to think about it...

[Marissa2]

Posted: 10/21/06 at 1:19am

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