NEW YORK -- The film version of the hit Broadway musical Rent almost had a different cast.
Chris Columbus, the director of the Home Alone movies and the first two Harry Potter films, admits he considered going the celebrity route when casting Rent.
Rent is the story of a group of friends, many of whom are struggling artists and musicians, living in a condemned building in New York's East Village.
And though it is a musical about death and dying, Rent is a stirring celebration about life and love.
As Columbus' producing partner Mark Radcliffe recalls, he and the filmmaker "started out with the idea of not using the original cast and many of the biggest names in music were eager to be in a film version of Rent."
They considered casting Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Usher, Christina Aguilera and Brittany Murphy in the central roles.
"Yes, I talked to Justin. He's a really sweet, talented guy and he was very interested in the project," says Columbus.
"I also met with emerging singers and people who'd done the show recently in New York or for the tours.
"There was so much talent, but something was missing from the performances I had seen and fallen in love with back in 1996."
Columbus realized it was the feeling of family the original cast members had.
They had gone through a devastating experience on the day of their first public preview.
Jonathan Larson, the 35-year-old creator of the show, had died earlier that morning from an undetected aortic aneurism.
Columbus remembered reading an article in which Anthony Rapp, who'd been Larson's friend and who played the young filmmaker in Rent, talking about how composer's death had taken the cast's performances to a different level.
"I decided to meet with Anthony and talk to him," recalls Columbus.
To his surprise and elation "Anthony still looked young enough to play Mark, so I decided to meet with each of the other leads."
Rapp recalls he immediately phoned Adam Pascal, who had played the struggling rock musician Roger.
"I told him to look as young as possible for his meeting. I didn't want anyone else to play Roger if I was going to play Mark.
"We'd done the show for 16 months together."
Columbus eventually cast Rapp, Pascal and Taye Diggs, Idina Menzel, Wilson Jermaine Heredia and Jesse L. Martin, four of the other original core cast members.
He says that Daphne Rubin-Vega, who played the exotic dancer Mimi, "was pregnant at the time, so she couldn't do the film.
"Fredi Walker, who played the lawyer Joanne, felt she was too old for the film. She was the oldest member of the original cast."
Rubin-Vega was replaced by Rosario Dawson and Walker by Traci Thoms.
