Alex Cox
Alex Cox | |
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Born | Alexander B. H. Cox 15 December 1954 |
Alma mater | |
Occupations |
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Years active | 1980–present |
Notable work | |
Spouse | Tod Davies |
Alexander B. H. Cox (born 15 December 1954)[2][3] is an English film director, screenwriter, actor, non-fiction author and broadcaster. Cox experienced success early in his career with Repo Man and Sid and Nancy, but since the release and commercial failure of Walker, his career has moved towards independent films.[1] Cox received a co-writer credit for the screenplay of Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) for previous work on the script before it was rewritten by Gilliam.
As of 2012, Cox has taught screenwriting and film production at the
Early life
Cox was born in
Film career
Study and independent
Cox began reading law as an undergraduate at
Hollywood and major studio period (1978–1987)
After the success of the soundtrack album (notable for featuring many popular
Continuing his fascination with
Cox had long been interested in
Continuing his interest in Nicaragua, Cox took on a more overtly political project, with the intention of filming it there. He asked
Mexican period (1988–1996)
Effectively
Shortly after this, Cox was invited to adapt a Jorge Luis Borges story of his choice for the BBC. He chose Death and the Compass. Despite being a British production and an English language film, he convinced his producers to let him shoot in Mexico City. This film, like his previous Mexican production, made extensive use of long-takes. The completed 55-minute film aired on the BBC in 1992.
Cox had hoped to expand this into a feature-length film, but the BBC was uninterested. Japanese investors gave him $100,000 to expand the film in 1993, but the production ran over-budget, allowing no funds for post-production. To secure funds, Cox directed a "work for hire" project called The Winner. The film was edited extensively without Cox's knowledge, and he tried to have his name removed from the credits as a result but was denied, but the money was enough for Cox to fund the completion of Death and the Compass. The finished, 82-minute feature received a limited cinema release in the US, where the TV version had not aired, in 1996.
Liverpool period (1997–2006)
In 1996, producer Stephen Nemeth employed Alex Cox to write and direct an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. After creative disagreements with the producer and Thompson, he was sacked from the project, and his script rewritten when Terry Gilliam took over the film. (Cox later sued successfully for a writing credit, as it was ruled that there were enough similarities between the drafts to suggest that Gilliam's was derivative of Cox's. Gilliam countered that the screenplays were based on the source book and similarities between them were a consequence of this.)
In 1997, Alex Cox made a deal with Dutch producer Wim Kayzer to produce another dual TV/feature production. Three Businessmen. Initially, Cox had hoped to shoot in Mexico but later decided to set his story in Liverpool, Rotterdam, Tokyo and Almería. The story follows businessmen in Liverpool who leave their hotel in search of food and slowly drift further from their starting point, all the while believing they are still in Liverpool. The film was completed for a small budget of $250,000. Following this, Cox moved back to Liverpool and became interested in creating films there.
Cox had long been interested in the
Following this, Cox directed a short film set in Liverpool for the BBC titled I'm a Juvenile Delinquent – Jail Me! (2004). The 30-minute film satirised reality television as well as the high volume of petty crime in Liverpool which, according to Cox, is largely recreational.
Microfeature period (2007–present)
In 2006, Alex Cox tried to get funding for a series of eight very low budget features set in Liverpool and produced by locals. The project was not completed, but the director grew interested in pursuing the idea of a film made for less than £100,000. He had originally hoped to shoot Repo Man on a comparable budget, and hoped that the lower overhead would mean greater creative freedom.[citation needed]
Alex Cox had attempted to get a Repo Man sequel, titled Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday, produced in the mid-'90s, but the project fell apart, with the script adapted into a graphic novel of the same name.[8][9] For his next micro-feature, he wrote a fresh attempt at a Repo follow-up, although it contained no recurring characters, so as to preserve Universal's rights to the original. Repo Chick was filmed entirely against a green screen, with backgrounds of digital composites, live action shots, and miniatures matted in afterwards, to produce an artificial look. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 9 September 2009.[citation needed]
As of July 2012[update], Cox was teaching film production and screenwriting at the
In 2013 Cox directed Bill, the Galactic Hero, developed from a science fiction book by Harry Harrison. It was funded by a successful Kickstarter funding campaign, raising $114,957 of the original $100,000 goal.[11] The film was to be made, created and acted by his film students in monochrome with supervision from professional film makers who would be giving their time on the film for free.[11]
Cox's 2013 book The President and the Provocateur examines events in the lives of John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald leading up to Kennedy's assassination, with reference to the various conspiracy theories.[12]
In 2017 Cox directed another crowdfunded film, Tombstone Rashomon, which tells the tale of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral from multiple perspectives in the style of Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomon.[citation needed]
In September 2019, Cox started the podcast ‘Conversations with Cox and Kjølseth’ with his friend and colleague Pablo Kjølseth. In October 2022, Cox announced the end of the podcast, citing its small audience and the comparative success of podcasts by Joe Dante, Quentin Tarantino and Cox's one-time collaborator Roger Deakins.[13]
Moviedrome
In May 1988 Cox began presenting the long-running and influential BBC series
Influences and style
Cox has cited
Cox is a fan of the Japanese Godzilla films and appeared in a 1998 BBC documentary highlighting the series. He also narrated the documentary Bringing Godzilla Down to Size and wrote the Godzilla in Time comics for Dark Horse. He tried to direct an American Godzilla film at one point, but unsuccessfully submitted his outline to TriStar Pictures.
Personal life
As of 2011, Cox resided in Colestin, Oregon, United States, with his wife, writer Todelina Babish Davies.[20][1]
Partial list of works
Feature films
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | Edge City | Yes | Yes | No | Short film |
1984 | Repo Man | Yes | Yes | No | |
1986 | Sid & Nancy | Yes | Yes | No | |
1987 | Straight to Hell | Yes | Yes | No | |
Walker | Yes | No | No | Also editor | |
1991 | El Patrullero (Highway Patrolman)
|
Yes | No | No | |
1992 | Death and the Compass | Yes | Yes | No | |
1996 | The Winner | Yes | No | No | |
1998 | Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas | No | Yes | No | Replaced as director by Terry Gilliam[21] |
Three Businessmen | Yes | No | No | ||
2002 | Revengers Tragedy | Yes | No | No | |
2007 | Searchers 2.0 | Yes | Yes | No | Also editor |
2009 | Repo Chick | Yes | Yes | Yes | Also editor |
2014 | Bill, the Galactic Hero | Yes | Yes | No | |
2017 | Tombstone Rashomon | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
2018 | 27: El club de los malditos[22] | No | Yes | No |
Documentaries
- Kurosawa: The Last Emperor (1999)
- Emmanuelle: A Hard Look (2000)
- Bringing Godzilla Down to Size (2007) – narrator
- Scene Missing (2012)
Television
- Moviedrome (as presenter) (1988 to 1994)
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters – BBC, contributor
- In His Life: The John Lennon Story as Bruno Koschmider
- Mike Hama Must Die! (2002)
- I'm a Juvenile Delinquent – Jail Me! (2003)
Books
- 10,000 Ways to Die: A Director's Take on the Spaghetti Western (2008)
- X Films: True Confessions of a Radical Filmmaker (2008)
- Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday (2008)
- Three Dead Princes (Illustrator) (2010)
- The President and the Provocateur: The Parallel Lives of JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald (2013)
- Alex Cox's Introduction to Film: A Director's Perspective (2016)
- I Am (Not) A Number: Decoding The Prisoner (2017)
Acting credits
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1980 | Edge City | Roy Rawlings | Short film |
1984 | Repo Man | Car Wash Attendant | Uncredited |
1986 | Sid & Nancy | Man Sitting in Mr. Head's Room | Uncredited |
1987 | Straight to Hell | A Thug in the Amazulu Band | Uncredited |
1991 | El Patrullero (Highway Patrolman)
|
Gringo No. 2 | |
1992 | Death and the Compass | Commander Borges | |
1996 | The Winner | Gaston | |
1997 | Perdita Durango (Dance with the Devil) | Doyle | |
1998 | Three Businessmen | Frank King | |
1999 | Herod's Law | Gringo | |
2002 | Revengers Tragedy | Duke's Driver | |
2007 | Searchers 2.0 | Entrepreneur | |
2009 | Repo Chick | Professor | |
2021 | Mad God | Last Man |
References
- ^ a b c d e "An evening with Alex Cox 26.10.12". Hoylake Community Cinema. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
- ^ "Alex Cox Biography (1954–)". Film Reference. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
- ^ Erickson, Hal. "Alex Cox Biography". AllMovie. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- ^ John, Arit (17 November 2010). "School of Theater, Film and Television graduate Alex Cox to visit UCLA to teach master class, screen his films at Billy Wilder Theater". Daily Bruin. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- ^ Cox, Alex (1 June 2012). "A Spaghetti Western Roundup at Film Forum". The New York Times.
- ^ "Searchers 2.0 on IMDB". imdb.com. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
- ^ Smith, Zack (27 February 2008). "Alex Cox: The Comic Book Sequel To Repo Mam". Newsarama. Retrieved 5 November 2008.[permanent dead link]
- ^ First Look: Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday Archived 21 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Entertainment Weekly
- ^ Cox, Alex (29 July 2012). "The Fretful Birth of the New Western". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
- ^ a b Cox, Alex. "Alex Cox directs BILL THE GALACTIC HERO". kickstarter.com. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
- ^ Marcus, Richard (29 June 2013). "Book Review: 'The President And The Provocateur' by Alex Cox". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
- ^ "Cox & Kjølseth: EP112: Cox & Kjolseth gallop off into the sunset on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Archived from the original on 14 October 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
- ^ "The Alex Cox Years". Moviedromer.
- ^ "Alex Cox – Kurosawa: The Last Emperor". Archived from the original on 13 November 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
- ^ Murray, Noel (13 March 2008). "Alex Cox · Interview · The A.V. Club". Avclub.com. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
- ^ Thompson, Stephen (6 September 2000). "Is there a God?". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
- ^ J.D. Lafrance (10 November 2008). "Radiator Heaven: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Rheaven.blogspot.com. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
- ^ "Director Alex Cox on His Long-Awaited Non-Sequel Repo Chick". villagevoice.com. The Village Voice. Archived from the original on 25 December 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
- ^ Baker, Jeff (11 April 2011). "Tod Davies finds her new book under a big fir tree south of Ashland". Retrieved 13 October 2017.
- ^ "War Games". The New Yorker. 18 May 1998. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
- Filmaffinity
External links
- Alex Cox Films
- Alex Cox at IMDb
- Rabin, Nathan (20 September 2000). "Interview: Alex Cox". The Onion.
- Murray, Noel (13 March 2008). "Interview: Alex Cox". The Onion.
- Wilentz, David (4 April 2008). "In Conversation: Alex Cox". The Brooklyn Rail.