According to the Amazon.com website, the "Rent" CDs will be released Sept. 27. Pre-orders are already being accepted on the aforementioned website; the CDs sell for $27.98, although there is currently a special offer for $24.99. Visit www.amazon.com for more information.

As previously reported, the eagerly awaited movie musical directed by Chris Columbus will open in theatres nationwide Nov. 23. "Rent," based on Jonathan Larson's award-winning musical of the same name, filmed in New York and San Francisco.

The motion picture boasts 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" site, visit Click Here.