rent Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Click on the image above to watch exclusive clip

Cinematical has just received this exclusive clip from Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway, which just ended its 12-year run in New York City earlier this month. And to celebrate the show (which I've personally seen roughly four times in those twelve years), Sony Pictures Releasing's new special programming division THE HOT TICKET is bringing the version of Rent we all know and love to select movie screens across the country.

But this isn't just the taping of some random performance -- oh no, cameras were allowed into the theater to record two special performances (one at the end of August and the final night), and it's a combo of these which will take theaters by storm beginning September 24th. You Rent-heads will only have four days to see it, though, so make sure you clear out some time on the 24th, 25th, 27th and 28th and catch a Broadway show at your local Cineplex. Heck, it's a lot cheaper than visiting New York for the weekend ... trust me on that one. For more -- including images, video, ticket and participating theater info -- head on over to the Hot Ticket official website.

To watch the exclusive video, head after the jump or click the image above. Enjoy.

Have I ever told you that I'm obsessed with watching Cirque du Soleil shows? I've seen at least 10 live performances in the past few years and highly recommend them to anyone who's never taken the Cirque plunge. In fact, now you have more of a reason to check out a Cirque show because their latest, Delirium, is coming to a theater near you at the end of the month. Sony Pictures Releasing has set up this new programming division called The Hot Ticket, and they specialize in bringing stuff like rock concerts, Broadway shows and premier sporting events to theaters across the United States and Canada. We've talked about this sort of thing a bunch before, and it's definitely a smart move for theaters; one that might eventually become the norm.

So far, The Hot Ticket is bringing Delirium (I'd shell out money to see Delirious on the big screen too, by the way) to theaters for a limited run of four days (August 20, 21, 23 and 24). You can find out where it's playing near you by visiting The Hot Ticket website. Aside from Delirium, they'll also be bringing the show Rent to theaters in September. As far as the viewing experience goes, here's a quote from their website: "Each presentation from The Hot Ticket will be a limited engagement and events will be shown in 2K and 4K digital theaters to ensure the highest quality viewing experience. With the very best in special event programming and state-of-the-art digital projection and sound in theaters, The Hot Ticket will offer the kind of unparalleled access that will make these events memorable viewing experiences."

Sounds like something worth trying out. What do you think? Is this the future of theatrical entertainment? (Check out some really cool images from Delirium in the gallery below.)

So after what's felt like a gazillion years, I finally managed to catch Jersey Boys on Broadway last night ... and all I could think about the entire time was why this hasn't been turned into a movie yet. (But in a good way.) In the past few years, we've had Chicago, Rent, Hairspray and The Producers, with Mamma Mia and Nine on the horizon. Where's Jersey Boys? The damn show gets a standing ovation every night, not to mention it's got a great story, great characters and, well, fantastic music. It'd be like Goodfellas: The Musical -- and something like that would probably rake in more cash (from both men and women) than most of these movie-musicals to date.

I haven't had this much fun watching a musical in years; probably since Wicked (which is another one that needs to hit the big screen at some point). But when I sat there, picturing how they could adapt each scene and make it really work on the big screen, one annoying issue kept beating me over the head: Who in the world do you cast? Since Hollywood is all about sticking names in these sorts of roles, you'd need four young guys who not only can sing (Valli gets UP there), but also come with thick Jersey accents. Off the top of my head, I don't know of any young, Hollywood stars who fit the bill. MAYBE Zac Efron, but he might be a tad too young ... and I've never seen him do a tough, Jersey accent (honestly, I don't know if I want to ...)

There was a time in my life when I spent more of my weekends going to concerts than going to the movies. And many of those concerts were fittingly at a venue that had previously been a movie theater. Back then, though, I never thought about the significance of seeing The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in the same place I once watched A Nightmare on Elm Street 4. There was a fine distinction between live music and cinema.

Unlike now, when there's an ever growing feeling that for the exhibition industry cinema is dead, while live music is, umm, live. The signs have been visible for the past year: Garth Brooks selling out multiplexes; a Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert coming in at #1 at the box office. But nothing made the future seem as clear as last month's news that National Amusements is going into the live entertainment business.

The theater chain, which also technically owns most of Viacom, has apparently seen enough interest in live entertainment through "experiments" at its fancy Cinema De Lux locations that it will begin operating venues strictly for live entertainment, which will be called Showcase Live! (a name similar to the company's Showcase Cinemas brand of multiplexes). The first is set to open this August, and while it's the only one apparently planned out so far, the company expects to open three to five more within the next few years.

A few years ago, Rent came to the big screen by means of Chris Columbus, from a screenplay by The Perks of Being a Wallflower scribe, Stephen Chbosky. What made the film particularly special was that almost all of the Broadway cast reprised their roles for the movie -- thereby keeping the original spark. It was a smart move on their part -- it's hard to complain about an adaptation when the main players are into it. Variety is now reporting that both Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal, who played Mark and Roger on stage and screen, have returned to the show for the next six weeks. For Rapp, that means stepping into the shoes he first filled all the way back in 1994, during the workshop version (Roger, at the time, was played by Tony Hoylen).

Rapp said after his return: "It feels like home." While most of the costumes have changed over the last 10+ years, he wears "the same old coat, but new everything else." For Pascal, fans were so happy to see him back on the stage that when he began to sing the wrong verse during the performance, "the entire audience laughed right along with him." I've never gotten into Rent, but I've always been a fan of Rapp. To me, he'll always be Daryl from Adventures in Babysitting, McGoo in School Ties and of course, the geeky Tony in Dazed and Confused.

He may have been the least inspired director involved with the Harry Potter franchise, but Chris Columbus was at least sufficient a talent for the task. He adequately set up the series with the first two movies, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, so that Alfonso Cuarón could come in and comparatively deliver a masterpiece with Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. While the idea continues to be tossed around regarding Columbus' possibility of returning to the Potter movies, the director, whose last film was Rent in 2005, has also been offered the chance to start up another franchise by directing Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

The movie will be adapted from the first book in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. The plot involves a 12-year old boy who discovers that he is a demigod, the offspring of Poseidon and a mortal woman, and follows him in his adventures through Hades and Olympus in order to save the world from an apocalyptic war among the gods. The most interesting, albeit traditionally unfaithful, thing about the books is that they place the entrance to Hades in Los Angeles and they feature Olympus floating above New York City. As an enthusiast of Greek mythology, I am curiously looking forward to the movies (I'd pick up the first book if it wasn't intended for such young readers). Hopefully once Columbus finishes his set-up duties with this series, either after Lightning or the expected sequel, Percy Jackson and the Sea Monsters, Fox 2000 will hire a filmmaker with more talent and more style in order to continue the franchise.

If you're a resident of New York City, there's a good chance you take in a healthy assortment of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows each year. In the past few years, I cannot remember a more enjoyable experience (okay, Avenue Q was pretty rad) than when I saw Wicked. First off, the show is in The Gershwin Theater which, if you've never been, is the Madison Square Garden of Broadway theaters. Yes, the place is freaking gigantic. I love it.

Besides its massive home, Wicked is, quite simply, a fantastic show. For those of you who aren't aware of Wicked (seriously, where have you been?), its story revolves around the witches from The Wizard of Oz and what happened to them before, during and after that whole Oz adventure. The thing I enjoyed most about the show was its story and the many layers presented throughout. For a Broadway musical, I was very impressed to discover some solid substance behind all the singing and dancing.

So, like with the latest film version of The Producers, Chicago, Rent and the upcoming Hairspray, will Wicked ever find its way to the big screen? Playbill.com presented the question to composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz who, in turn, had absolutely no idea. He felt that, eventually, Universal (who produces Wicked) will get around to discussing a film version, but so far folks behind the scenes are too busy expanding the production to locations outside the United States. If you want my opinion, it's only a matter of time before this sucker shows up on screen and, yes, I will be first on line for a ticket. But don't tell that to any of my guy friends.

• Doogal - A saccharine, cheap-looking CGI import from Britain about a lazy, cowardly, sugar-addicted pooch (with a mullet cut) who must find a way to save the world from an icy death is not the follow-up to Hoodwinked that Disney escapees Bob and Harvey Weinstein hoped for...or we asked for. At least they've got the swell Over The Hedge in theaters this week. Formerly titled The Magic Roundabout and re-dubbed (Doogal, that is. Not Over The Hedge.)

• Duma - With most arthouse films rated "R", it is always a pleasure when one comes along that culture mavens can take their kids to, and The Black Stallion director Carroll Ballard's latest nature trek -- a visually lovely adventure -- certainly does fit that bill. It is about a 12-year-old South African boy (Alexander Michaletos) who must return his pet cheetah to the wild, encountering and overcoming a number of obstacles along the way, the biggest one being our initial reluctance to accept its premise.
 

They say it takes three to make a trend, and with Jamie Foxx, Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon successfully plumbing the biographies of Ray Charles, Johnny Cash and June Carter for Oscar gold, it should surprise no one if we find ourselves innundated with music biopics over the next couple of years. Next up: Sexual Healing, a look at the final years in the life of Marvin Gaye, in which the troubled soul singer moved to Europe, recovered from a nasty drug addiction, and then moved back to the US, moved in with his parents, and got back on the spike just in time to be shot to death by his father during an argument. Gaye will be played by Law and Order regular Jesse L. Martin, who last appeared on the big screen as an HIV-postive academic in Chris Columbus' abysmal feature version of Broadway's Rent. The film will be directed by Lauren Goodman, whose IMDb profile is a virtual ghost town. That said, Martin's a theater veteran with genuine musical talent; with the right script, this could very well rock.