Another one to make you scratch your head and make you say “huh?”
Variety is reporting that Warner Brothers has acquired rights to adapt a film version of Jonathan Larson’s award winning musical Rent. No big surprise there. With the success of Chicago studios have been looking to get back into the musical pool and Rent seems like an obvious choice. In fact Miramax had a Rent adaptation in the works with Spike Lee slated to direct before they chose to back out over budgetary issues. But here’s where things get just plain confusing. Slated to write and direct the Warner’s version: Chris Columbus. Huh? Mr. Home Alone? I’ve got nothing against the man but he’s a workmanlike director at best who really hasn’t shown the visual style to make something like this work never mind that he’s shown absolutely nothing in his writing to indicate that he can even begin to handle this kind of complex material. This is a man who’s most complex film is Stepmom. Maybe he’ll surprise me but I think this is one expensive horror show just waiting to happen …
