The RENT movie press junket today (11/12) — Page 2

>>>I am glad that they were honest about it during hte press junket, though.<<<

Well, only Jesse let it slip. He did his interview alongside (of course) Wilson, and this bit of information didn't seem surprising to him, so I'm guessing the returning OBC'ers probably knew. (not to stir up anything) Producer Michael Barnathan dished out the "Daphne was pregnant" and "Fredi and Chris came to a mutual agreement she was too old" nuggets earlier in the day.

it really saddens me that Columbus cut so much good material just to play it "safe" because part of what makes Rent "Rent" is that it pushes the envelope in a way that moves audiences

I'm kind of on the fence about it as far as the cutting of alot of the materials. On the one hand, I agree with your statement out_of_tune_thespian in the sense that I've always believed that part of RENT's meaning is pushing the envelope in a way that moves audiences and as a diehard fan of the original stage production, it would of course sadden me to some degree to see things (especially significant ones) cut. But on the other hand, I can understand how, for audience members that are new and unfamiliar to the show, too much song with so little dialogue can be tiring and just sort of drabble on after a while. Seeing as how musical movies are just starting to make a huge comeback, people aren't used to that genre of movie anymore (or at least younger people of the past decade or so) and therefore can understandably get impatient with it faster. I don't know, I'm very nuetral on this topic I guess.

And twotrey, what is the link to your website? I'd love to read the full transcripts of the press junket. I am a bit shocked to hear that Daphne and Fredi where devestated by the loss of their roles, though I do understsand why slightly in Daphne's case (pretty much for the reasons previously mentioned having to do with pre-set age etc). So yeah, if you could leave a link that'd be awsome.

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I think it's more than telling that Chris thought he would get an R rating, when he, apparently, can't make an R rated movie to save his life. "Didn't fit the montage?" Good grief! It's an important part of character development in a play you want to stay faithful to supposedly...you MAKE it fit Mr. Director.

where can we read these transcripts?

Where did this junket take place?

And, one more time, what is your site?

I wish that people weren't so set on hating this movie and hating Columbus that they were acting too dense to get through their heads that the cast and the director were SURE the movie would get an R rating. And you know what? After seeing it, I'm QUITE surprised that it's NOT rated R. People get hurt. There's blood. There's nudity. There's suffering. There's vulgarity. There's drug use. I'm very, very surprised.

When you see this movie, you will notice ONE line that is exactly translated from the libretto that has lost a swear word. Rather than "this lot is full of mother f*ckin' artists," the homeless lady just says "this lot is full of artists." She's got the same attitude, and it REALLY DOESN'T MATTER. There were a few others that got removed along the way, but they're just throw-away words.

Seriously, wake up and wait until you see it. It's probably not as dirty as some people wish it would be, but that's ONLY because of HOW faithful it is to the show. Don't clamor about how it's not faithful because this was cut and that was cut, because that's not what I'm talking about -- but I'm saying that there's nothing ADDED to shock you, other than the things I listed above that are IMPLIED but not demonstrated on stage. But if people wanted something that translated more or less the show's MATERIAL, that's what y'all have got.

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Updated On: 11/13/05 at 10:07 AM

I did. Very, very very much.

I'm going to post about it, but probaby later today. I had a long night, and I just woke up.

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Twotrey, can I ask how you got invited to these things?

And, Fredi could still ahgree she was "too old" and still feel devestated...I'm sorry, Daphne is my goddess, but Rosario nailed this film.

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I wouldn't say that I'm surprised the film isn't R rated, but I will agree that they probably pushed the PG13 rating to the limit.

I actually talked to somebody at the screening about this and she said that the suicide and the two extra "fvcks" -- (there is one noticable line in which Idina loops a "friggin" over a "fvckin") would have made it an R.

An R rating would have been a disaster for this version of the material.

For the record, I was not asking where it was in order to stalk the cast. That's not my style. I've never even waited at a stage door. I did not think I could march down there with my handy dandy notebook of questions and ask them at my leisure.
I was just curious.

I agree with Michael Bennett. This version of the material needed a PG-13 rating.

But not even speaking in terms of ratings, because I DO believe the geniunely thought they were going to get an R...it seems they took an easy way out on the heavy material.

I bet if they released the video that they recorded of the Original Cast for record purposes, they would have gotten between a PG-PG-13 rating.

I agree. Because you HEAR about those things, you don't see them -- which is why I stand by my view that people who wanted the movie to be darker and grittier are also hypocritical if they say that they also wanted it to be very true to the show. Yes, you SEE things that are only spoken of in the show, but nothing not mentioned in the show is added simply to add to the darkness of the material. So in other words, I think it's hypocritical for someone to complain that they took the easy way out if they also wanted faithful treatment. Could things have been darker, dirtier? Sure. Will I admit to wanting to have seen MORE of that stuff? Absolutely. But I certainly don't feel let down by that desire, or anything, because I don't believe that staying as faithful as they did is a bad thing. It's a choice, but I'm not in any authority to say it's a "wrong" choice.

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Updated On: 11/13/05 at 11:39 AM