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Will
Spike Lee helm the film version of Rent? The New York Post
quotes a Miramax representative as saying that Lee is in talks to
direct the screen version of the popular musical.
Miramax
acquired the film rights to Rent in 1996, but reportedly
agreed not to release the movie until at least the fall of 2001.
Steve Chbosky, who penned the film The Four Corners of Nowhere
and the television series Brutally Normal, is writing the
screenplay. Martin Scorsese, who is one of the producers of the
film, was at one time mentioned to be the director.
Lee wrote
and directed the films She's Gotta Have It, School Daze
(a musical), Do the Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle
Fever, Malcolm X, Crooklyn, Clockers, He
Got Game, Summer of Sam and Bamboozled. He also
recently helmed a television movie based on Roger Guenveur Smith's
play A Huey P. Newton Story.
Rent,
which features book, music and lyrics by the late Jonathan Larson,
tells the story of struggling young artists living on the in New
York's East Village. Ironically, Lee is mentioned in the
musical--after Mimi thanks god for the moonlight in the song
"Light My Candle," Roger replies: "Maybe it's not the
moon at all. I hear Spike Lee's shooting down the street."
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