"Rent" Not Paying Rent?

First we had to deal with the drama of New Yorkers whining over Rent interiors being filmed on Treasure Island, prompting Revolution Studios to assure Gothamist that exteriors would be shot in NYC. Now we have to deal with former Supervisor and current Treasure Island Development Association director Tony Hall whining over Rent interiors being filmed on Treasure Island. No, Tony isn't nostalgic for the East Village of the early nineties -- he's more worried about the production, well, paying the rent.

From what we understand of the deal, the San Francisco Film Commission is paying $12,000 rent each month to the Treasure Island Development Authortiy, but is subtracting the cost of the work being done to restore the buildings by Revolution Studios as capital improvement expenses. But recently appointed TIDA Director Tony Hall showed up the other day and demanded that work repairing the leaky roof on the Admiral Nimitz Conference Center be stopped because of the lack of proper permits.

So at yesterday's Film Commission meeting, fellow Mayoral appointee, Swells regular and SFFC Director Stefanie Coyote (wonder why Gavin thought to hire her?) lambasted Hall, accused him of reneging on his promises, threatening to arrest the roofers on the site, and claimed that the future of the project was in jeopardy, which would probably sour the hopes of Director Chris Columbus for revitalizing the local industry. Since the local film business has been in a funk for years -- with nearly half of The City's film related businesses having closed their doors in the last few years -- Sean House of the Bay Area Film Alliance urged members of the local Indieclub and others in the trade to lobby the mayor on behalf of the production.

A private meeting between Gavin, Tony and Stefanie is scheduled today at two o'clock, and SFist has a feeling that Gavin is going to point out that he saved Mr. Hall from having to run for Supervisor in the last election by doling out a plum appointment, and that he didn't bring on the wife of a famous-for-SF actor as Director of the Film Commission to discourage filmmakers from coming to San Francisco to work. Is Tony just jealous that a famous-for-SF politician can't compete with C-listers from Hollywood for the affections of our Mayor? We don't know. We've got emails out to the SFFC, the TIDA and Revolution Studios and will keep you updated as the story progresses. If you'd like to support the production, Sean House has prepared a draft letter for you to send in to our mayor and his assistant - copy and paste after the jump.