J.K. Dineen
sfexaminer
March 8, 2005
Sixth Street is getting ready for its
close-up.
Alongside actors Rosario Dawson and Taye Diggs, the downtrodden skid row will
star in the big-screen version of the Broadway musical "Rent."
In the movie, the stretch of Sixth between Market and Mission streets will
portray Manhattan's Lower East Side, circa 1985. The row of brick residential
hotels, pawnshop windows, transients and drug pushers was the perfect place to
evoke "Rent's" gritty world of AIDS, poverty, and homelessness,
location manager Jonathan Shedd said.
"It's honestly the only part of San
Francisco that still looks it could pass [as the Lower East Side]," Shedd
said. "The gentrification of this town has changed the face so much it's
hard to find down-and-dirty locations."
Monday, location scouts combed the neighborhood, talking to business owners.
Shedd and assistant Saisie Jang went into Sonoma Liquors to discuss using the
store's exterior. Sonoma Liquor clerk Mazen Halin said maybe Hollywood would
discover him.
"I'd just like to be out there on the set to get some experience," he
said.
The "Rent" crew will take over
the block for two days and two nights of filming between March 21 and April 1.
While the details are still being worked out, "Rent" will feature
Tony's Barbershop, Club 6, Pacific Loan pawnshop, Sonoma Liquors and the Seneca
Hotel. Club 6 will become the Cat Scratch Club, the S&M-themed club where
the beautiful, HIV-positive Mimi Marquez (played by Dawson) works as a dancer.
Tony's Barbershop will be reinvented as Crazy Eddie's, an electronics store. The
cast will be filmed standing in front of the store on New Year's Eve, watching
the Times Square ball drop on the multiple televisions that fill the store's
window.
While "Rent" will be an
inconvenience for some, it presents opportunities for other residents, according
to Urban Solutions Executive Director Roger Gordon, who has been working with
the location scouts and business owners to iron out the filming logistics. A
total of six production assistants and one intern will be hired from the
neighborhood for the Sixth Street work, Gordon said.
"We're looking for Sixth Street residents with an acting or film
background," Gordon said. "It's tough business to break into, this is
a great opportunity for folks."
Tony Huynh, owner of Tony's Barbershop, said he welcomed the "Rent"
crew.
"Why not?" he said. "The more normal people down here, the better."