Movies - Rent

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Rent (film)

	Movies - Rent

Rent is the film adaptation of the award-winning Broadway musical of the same name, released November 23 2005. Production began March 15, 2005. The film's limited release date in New York City, Los Angeles, and Toronto on November 11, 2005 was cancelled, and the official premiere was at New York's Ziegfeld Theatre on November 17, 2005.

Many exterior shots were filmed in New York City; the interior and remaining exterior shots were filmed in San Francisco and Oakland.

Until 2001, Spike Lee was to direct the film for Miramax. However, budget constraints and Lee's insistence on casting big-name stars like Justin Timberlake and Brittany Murphy led the film to be shelved.

In October 2004, Revolution Studios picked up the film, with Chris Columbus as the director and Columbia Pictures as the distributor. Columbus, himself an NYU student and graduate at the turn of the 1980s, and in the location where the musical and film are set, felt a connection with the characters and their experiences.

The first trailer for the film featuring the song "Seasons of Love" surfaced on various Rent fan sites in early June 2005. The trailer was said to be shown before the films Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Crash in select cities beginning June 3 2005. reported that the trailer would officially be released June 7 2005, exclusively on America Online; the movie's official blog announced it would also air during the June 7 episode of Access Hollywood.

A second trailer was released on August 25 2005, which featured some dialog from the film as well as music from the second part of the finale ("Finale B"). A third trailer aired during the September 2005 season premiere of Nip/Tuck, which contained new footage set again to "Seasons of Love."

In the film as in the musical, the story takes place over one year. The film, however, differs in that it provides the precise beginning and ending dates of the storyline: between December 24, 1989 and that same date in 1990. (This precise dating creates several anachronisms; for example, the song "Today 4 U" contains a reference to Thelma and Louise
, a film released in 1991. )

Cast

Principal characters

All but two principal members of the original Broadway cast reprise their roles on film. Names in bold denote original Broadway cast members.

Rosario Dawson
, Mimi Marquez
Taye Diggs
, Benjamin "Benny" Coffin III
Wilson Jermaine Heredia
, Angel Dumott Schunard
Jesse L. Martin
, Thomas B. "Tom" Collins (had to temporarily leave Law & Order to film the movie.)
Idina Menzel
, Maureen Johnson
Adam Pascal
, Roger Davis
Anthony Rapp
, Mark Cohen (Rapp was one of the unknown leads in director Columbus' first film, 1987's Adventures in Babysitting
)
Tracie Thoms
, Joanne Jefferson

Daphne Rubin-Vega and Fredi Walker, the original Mimi and Joanne respectively, were not cast in the film. Rubin-Vega was pregnant at the time of casting and (at roughly 35) was too old to play a character of 19. Walker herself has stated that she looks too old to play the part of Joanne.

Taye Diggs' role as Benny in the Original Broadway Cast of RENT assisted in launching his acting career, which includes the movies How Stella Got Her Groove Back
and Chicago, as well as the lead in the critically-acclaimed TV show Kevin Hill.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Rent (film) ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Rent (film); it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Movies - Rent

Cast

Principal characters

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay