sfgate.com
March 25, 2005
"Rent" due: If the rain doesn't come back, the cast and crew of "Rent" are due to take over 6th and Mission and nearby Jessie Street March 30, 31 and April 1. This dicey part of town will stand in for Manhattan's Lower East Side, circa the early 1980s.
"It will be good for the neighborhood, which already is going through a renaissance," says Angel Cruz, owner of Club Six, which will replicate CBGB's, a famous New York rock club. Cruz said location scouts were impressed by the "urban artwork" on his club's exterior "painted by the best graffiti artists in the city." About 400 extras are expected to swarm around Sixth, which probably will be closed to traffic for part of the filming.
Ever since Chris Columbus discovered San Francisco and moved his family here, the hugely successful director of "Mrs. Doubtfire" and the first two "Harry Potter" movies has looked for opportunities to film in his adopted city. It's a bit of a stretch with "Rent," based on a rock opera about struggling young New Yorkers. The movie, which stars Rosario Dawson and Taye Diggs, is on a fast track and will be in theaters Nov. 11.