Update 2005 |
~~ Check it - it's 2005 and the movie is underway - click here - lots of articles ~~
Update 2001 |
Friday August 24, 2001 2:30 AM ET
By Claude Brodesser
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Miramax apparently has spiked Spike Lee's film version of the popular Broadway musical ``Rent.'' Miramax has been working with Tribeca Prods. on a screen adaptation of the Jonathan Larson tuner.
Lee was never officially attached to the project, but had expressed keen interest and had gone so far as to start testing out the singing voices of potential cast members for the film, including Latin crooner Marc Anthony.
A call placed to Lee was not returned, but insiders familiar with the project say that Miramax pulled the plug over a budget. Whatever the case, a Miramax spokesman declined to comment on the project's status.
Lee is now focusing his efforts on a dramatic film about fighter Joe Louis's life and the Brown Bomber's famous bout with Max Schmeling -- the 1936 fight that would be the first and most painful defeat of his boxing career.
Reuters/Variety REUTERS
SPIKE TO
DIRECT 'RENT'?
(a
compilation of recent articles)
June 15, 2001 -- THE movie version of "Rent" is starting to come
together, and Spike Lee may land in the director's chair.An enormous fan of
Jonathan Larson's hit musical - he's seen it several times - Lee is "in
discussions" with Miramax Films about directing the movie, a Miramax
representative said yesterday.
Miramax acquired the movie rights to "Rent" in 1996 for about $5 million, according to reports at the time. The company agreed not to release the film before fall 2001 - to protect international productions of the musical.
The screenplay is being written by Stephen Chabosky, whose credits include "Brutally Normal" and "The Four Corners of Nowhere."
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. Music is always a crucial element in all his films. He was in audience for the
Wednesday night opening of Larson's early musical "tick, tick . . .
BOOM!"
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."
Update 1999 |
The Post
April 23, 1999
| "THE family of "Rent" creator Jonathan Larson feel like they've been "stabbed in the heart" by the show's Broadway producers, their lawyer says. Nearly three years into the play's Tony-winning run, the Larson family was set to sell film rights to Miramax yesterday - until producers Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller, and Allan Gordon sued to delay the sale. The producers want to milk the cash cow for as long as possible before having to compete with a "Rent" movie, complains Larson family lawyer Jay Harris. But the producers' lawyer says they merely want to guarantee their creative input before any movie money changes hands." |
Update 1998 |
Parade Magazine
August 23, 1998
| Q: | I hear the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent is being made into a film by Miramax. When will it come out? --M.A., Vernon Hills, Ill. |
| A: | "Because the show is still sold out and there are plans to open companies in Japan and Australia, the producers are not ready to finalize any sales of rights," says a publicist for Rent. But he acknowledges that Miramax and its partner, Robert De Niro's Tribeca Productions, "have the intention of buying the rights." Miramax says, "We're at least a year or two away from production. Until then, no decision will be made on who stars." The studio also needs a script that works as well onscreen as it does onstage. But it does have a director: Martin Scorsese says he wants to do Rent. |
| Hollywood may have to wait to get 'Rent' |
Matthew Gilbert
The Boston Globe
14-Apr-1996
Representatives for nearly every major studio -- including Fox 2000, Universal, Warner Bros. and Columbia -- have contacted the producers of "Rent" or the estate of the late Jonathan Larson, who created the hit musical. Bidding on the rock opera, which won a Pulitzer last week, has reached more than $1 million and is likely to go much higher.
But there's a snag: The play's producers, Kevin McCollum, Jeffrey Seller and Allan Gordan, have a hold-back clause, enabling them to keep the movie from being made for 3 1/2 years, after which some fear the project may have lost steam.
Directed by the La Jolla Playhouse's Michael Greif, "Rent" opens April 29 on Broadway. "The main priority is that we open 'Rent' correctly," McCollum said. "A movie deal is not our priority today." Added agent Bill Craver of Writers & Artists Agency, who represents the show for Larson's estate, "It is important to have a life on Broadway first. And if it is a big hit, it enhances the value of the film, anyway."