The first three blog entries were posted May 10 by Larson's sister Julie and actors Anthony Rapp and Wilson Jermaine Heredia. In the "Rent" film, Rapp and Heredia play, respectively, Mark Cohen and Angel. Both actors created those roles in the original Broadway production.
Julie Larson has titled her blog entry "How We Got Here." Rapp's writing is simply titled "My First 'Official' Blog Entry," and Heredia has called his "Enjoying Every Moment." Additional blog entries will soon be posted by Idina Menzel (Maureen), Jesse L. Martin (Tom Collins), Rosario Dawson (Mimi), Taye Diggs (Benjamin Coffin III) and Tracie Thomas (Joanne).
Directed by Chris Columbus, Revolution Studios' "Rent," based on the Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning Jonathan Larson musical of the same name, will be released by Columbia Pictures Nov. 11, 2005.
Filming for the motion picture has already begun in New York and San Francisco featuring many of the stars of the original Broadway production. Those reprising their roles for the film, which features a screenplay by director Columbus and Stephen Chbosky, include Taye Diggs (as Benjamin "Benny" Coffin III), Wilson Jermaine Heredia (as Angel Schunard), Jesse L. Martin (as Thomas B. "Thom" Collins), Idina Menzel (as Maureen Johnson), Adam Pascal (as Roger Davis) and Anthony Rapp (as Mark Cohen). Newcomers include Rosario Dawson as Mimi with Tracie Thoms as Joanne Jefferson. The roles of Mimi and Joanne were created on Broadway by, respectively, Daphne Rubin-Vega and Fredi Walker.
The "Rent" film is being produced for Revolution Studios by Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal and 1492 Pictures' Columbus, Mark Radcliffe and Michael Barnathan. Executive producers include Jeffrey Seller, Kevin McCollum, Allan S. Gordon and Lata Ryan, who produced the Broadway mounting. Julie Larson, the sister of the late Rent composer, is co-producer of the film. Rent updates Puccini's La Boheme to the East Village of the late 1990's, with artists and lovers struggling to connect in a world that is chaotic, shallow and tinged with disease. The late Jonathan Larson wrote Rent's book, music and lyrics. The 1996 Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning musical continues at the Nederlander Theatre in New York City.
To view the "Rent" blog, visit Click Here.
