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You know, Gothamist always had a bad feelig about director Chris Columbus. The Harry Potter movies weren't as bad as we feared, and, yes, Adventures in Baby-Sitting is a classic (of sorts), but learning that Rent will be filmed in San Francisco makes our stomach turn. Rent is about musicians, dancers, addicts - a bunch of crazy kids trying to make it in this scary world - from our East Village, not from San Francisco's Tenderloin. Apparently shooting will occur somewhere in SF called "Treasure Island." Gothamist predicts this film will suck, even in spite of most of the cast (ten years older, pretty much) is returning, plus Rosario Dawson. You hear that, SFist?
Rent the musical is still on Broadway, with Drew "Brother of Nick, Brother-in-law of Jessica" Lachey and Frenchie "I was kicked off American Idol because of my past" Davis.
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Treasure Island is a little man made island connected to another island at the base of the Bay Bridge between SF and Oakland. It's a naval station converted into a film studio so think of it as SF's version of, uh, Navy Yard.
Too bad it's being filmed in SF. According to Yahoo Movies, Spike Lee was supposed to be the director before Miramax pulled funding.
Like him or not, you know Spike would have made a "New York" film. No such guarantee with Columbus.
Toyochin beat me to the first post, darnit, but yeah, Treasure Island is the name of the man-made (i.e., landfill) extension of Yerba Buena Island. Yerba Buena Island is known to most as that land mass in the middle of the Bay Bridge. Treasure Island was built for the 1939 World's Fair.
http://www.sfmuseum.net/hist5/treasis.html
My understanding is that they will be filming shots in both NYC and SF. This is what I read on IMDB.
We should keep a "Why Rent Will Suck" list. For starters:
It's being shot in San Francisco on a fake East Village set instead of in the East Village.
It's being directed by Chris Columbus, who will most likely sentimentalize every inch of the musical, rather than find its harder edges.
Maybe they should just film the full-length version of "Lease" from "Team America."
Toyochin and htb got the Treasure Island part right. It's basically a big, flat, square of fill with a bunch of big warehouses and hangars, though a few folks do actually live there - there's even an elementary school. It's actually part of the city of San Francisco, but just barely.
Chris Columbus is a choad, and I say that as a fellow NYU film alum. Personally I preferred "Lease" starring Gary Johnston. That closing number was inspiring!
Anyone who's read any of the Harry Potter books, then seen either of the first two films, will know why this film will suck. Hell, rent the Goonies for pete's sake!
I went to school at Treasure Island so don't knock it. And the Tenderloin, place I grew up in, is really ghetto so I guess that's the best place to film it. Thank Jen for showing your utter lack of knowledge of SF.
Or the movie version of Rent will suck because the stage version of Rent sucked. I wonder if it will continue to have those cutting edge references to Virtual Reality and Newt Gingrich's sister?
As a working movie lighting guy, I think it sucks that they are not shooting in New York, we need the work. On the other hand I'm happy the project dosn't fall inot the hands of those g-damn movie stealing canadians! eh!
the east village of today is hardly the east village of the 'rent' era. had the movie been shot here there would have been sets and studios involved.
Rent is a wonderful musical and I think it will be a great movie as long as they dont cut out important scenes and throw in a couple of monsters, that would Chris Columbous' true work.
Rent is a wonderful musical and I think it will be a great movie as long as they dont cut out important scenes and throw in a couple of monsters, that would Chris Columbous' true work.