Repo! The Genetic Opera
Repo! The Genetic Opera | |
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Directed by | Darren Lynn Bousman |
Screenplay by | |
Based on | The Necromerchant's Debt by Terrance Zdunich Darren Smith |
Produced by |
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Starring |
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Cinematography | Joseph White |
Edited by | Harvey Rosenstock |
Music by | Darren Smith |
Production company | Lionsgate |
Release dates |
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Running time | 98 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $8.5 million[2] |
Box office | $188,126[3] |
Repo! The Genetic Opera is a 2008 American
and Zdunich.Repo! premiered at the
Plot
By the year 2056, an epidemic of organ failures has devastated the planet and wiped out 99% of the human population. The megacorporation GeneCo provides organs on a payment plan. Clients who miss payments are hunted down by Repo Men, skilled assassins who "repossess" the organs ("Genetic Repo Man"). The CEO of GeneCo, Rotti Largo, discovers he is terminally ill. Rotti's children Luigi, Pavi, and Amber bicker over who will inherit GeneCo ("Mark It Up"), but Rotti believes none of them are worthy heirs and instead plans to give his fortune to 17-year-old Shilo Wallace, the daughter of his late ex-fiancée Marni ("Things You See In A Graveyard").
Shilo has inherited a rare blood disease from Marni that requires her to stay indoors, though she longs to see the outside world ("Infected"). Shilo's overprotective father Nathan believes he accidentally killed Marni with a treatment he created for her illness – in truth, a jealous Rotti secretly poisoned Marni's medicine and blackmailed Nathan, promising not to arrest him if he agreed to become GeneCo's head Repo Man, though he has convinced Shilo he is a doctor ("Legal Assassin"). One night, Shilo secretly visits Marni's tomb and runs into the omniscient GraveRobber, who is digging up bodies to secrete Zydrate, a euphoric and addictive pain-killer that he sells on the street to keep up with his GeneCo payments ("21st Century Cure").
Rotti lures Shilo to GeneCo's fair with the promise of a cure for her disease. There, she meets Blind Mag, an opera singer and GeneCo's celebrity spokesperson. Born blind, Mag has been given surgically enhanced eyes by GeneCo at the cost of indefinite employment, though she is soon resigning. GraveRobber helps Shilo escape the fairgrounds, encountering several of his customers including the surgery-addicted Amber ("Zydrate Anatomy"). Shilo learns that Mag's eyes are set for repossession and that Amber will replace her as GeneCo's spokeswoman. After GeneCops arrive, Shilo quickly returns to her room before Nathan notices her missing.
Rotti hires Nathan to repossess Mag's eyes, but Nathan refuses, citing that Mag was Marni's best friend ("Night Surgeon"). An infuriated Rotti vows to have Nathan taken out. Mag visits Shilo and reveals she is her godmother, and that Nathan had told her Shilo died with Marni. She cautions Shilo to not make the same mistakes she did ("Chase the Morning"). Nathan arrives and forces Mag out after she scolds him for lying and incarcerating Shilo ("Everyone's a Composer"). Meanwhile, Rotti writes his will, ready to make Shilo his sole beneficiary ("Gold").
Rotti invites Shilo to the Opera ("At the Opera Tonight"). Nathan heads to the opera to find her, pursued by GeneCops, whom he quickly dispatches. Amber makes her stage debut, but her performance is ruined when her transplanted face falls off. Mag completes her final performance, but deviates from the song's grand finale, denouncing the Largo family and gouging out her eyes in an act of defiance ("Chromaggia"). Rotti cuts the cords suspending Mag, impaling her on a fence, but assures the panicking audience that Mag's death was staged as part of the show.
Shilo is approached by a Repo Man and attacks him with a shovel, revealing that he is Nathan. She angrily confronts Nathan for lying to her about his profession ("Let the Monster Rise"). Onstage, Rotti reveals that Nathan has been poisoning Shilo's "medicine" in an attempt to keep her safe from the outside world after being unable to cope with the loss of Marni. As his disease rapidly worsens, Rotti offers Shilo GeneCo if she kills her father. When she refuses, Rotti uses the last of his strength to fatally shoot Nathan, and dies after disowning his children. After a tearful farewell to her father ("I Didn't Know I'd Love You So Much"), Shilo leaves, deciding that her father's actions do not dictate her future ("Genetic Emancipation").
Shilo flees, leaving GeneCo with no legal heir. Amber inherits the company instead and auctions her fallen face to charity, which Pavi wins after Luigi kills the top three bidders.
Cast
- Alexa Vegaas Shilo Wallace
- Paul Sorvino as Rotti Largo
- Anthony Stewart Headas Nathan / Repo Man
- Sarah Brightman as Blind Mag
- Paris Hilton as Amber Sweet
- Bill Moseley as Luigi Largo
- Nivek Ogre as Pavi Largo
- Terrance Zdunich as GraveRobber
- Sarah Power as Marni
Joan Jett makes a cameo appearance playing guitar during the song "Seventeen". Dean Armstrong, later seen in Saw 3D, appears as the victim during "Thankless Job". Co-writer Darren Smith appears during "We Started This Op'ra Shit" as the GeneCo band leader. Frequent Bousman collaborator J. LaRose appears during "Zydrate Support Network" as a GeneCo spokesman.
Music
The film's soundtrack was produced by Yoshiki from X Japan.
A 7-track demo CD dubbed the "Pre-Surgery Sampler", was released on July 24, 2008. A 22-track soundtrack was released on September 30. Songs do not appear in the same sequence on the CD as they do in the film. On February 20, 2009, an extended edition of the soundtrack was released online. The "Deluxe Edition" contains 38 tracks; and the song, "Zydrate Anatomy", was re-cut and used in its film version for this edition. Melora Creager of Rasputina plays cello on the soundtrack.
The
In the film, the following songs are performed:
- "Genetic Repo Man" – GraveRobber
- "Things You See in a Graveyard" – Rotti
- "21st Century Cure" – GraveRobber, Shilo
- "Shilo Wakes" – Nathan, Shilo
- "Infected" – Shilo
- "Legal Assassin" – Nathan, Ghostly chorus
- "Lungs and Livers" – GeneCo Chorus
- "Mark It Up" – Genterns, Amber, Luigi, Pavi
- "Tao of Mag" – Mag
- "Things You See in a Graveyard" (reprise) – Rotti
- "Limo Ride" – Rotti and Shilo
- "Thankless Job" – Nathan
- "Tao of Mag" (reprise) – Mag
- "No Organs? No Problemo!" – GeneCo chorus
- "Largo's Little Helpers" – Child chorus
- "Genterns" – Genterns, Pavi
- "Luigi, Pavi, Amber Harass Mag" – Luigi, Mag, Amber, Pavi, Rotti
- "Seeing You Stirs Memories" – Rotti
- "Seeing You Stirs Memories (Reprise)" – Rotti, Mag
- "My, What Big Scissors You Have" – Shilo
- "Inopportune Telephone Call" – Nathan, Shilo
- "GraveRobber and Shilo Escape" – GraveRobber, Shilo
- "Zydrate Support Network" – Rotti, Reporter
- "Zydrate Anatomy" – GraveRobber, Shilo, Amber, Zydrate addicts
- "Disposal Crew" – Disposal crew
- "Who Ordered Pizza?" – Luigi, Pavi, Nathan, Rotti, Amber
- "Night Surgeon" – Nathan, Rotti, Henchgirls, Luigi, Pavi, Genterns
- "Chase the Morning" – Mag, Shilo, Marni
- "Everyone's a Composer" – Mag, Nathan, Shilo
- "Come Back!" – Nathan and Shilo
- "What Chance Has a 17 Year Old Girl" – Nathan, Shilo
- "Seventeen" – Shilo
- "Happiness Is Not a Warm Scalpel" – Amber, Rotti
- "Gold" – Rotti
- "Nathan Discovers Rotti's Plan" – Nathan, Shilo
- "Tonight We Are Betrayed" – Nathan
- "At the Opera Tonight" – Shilo, Mag, Nathan, Amber, GraveRobber, Rotti, Luigi, Pavi
- "Bloodbath!" – GraveRobber
- "We Started This Op'ra Shit!" – Bandleader, Luigi, Pavi, Rotti, GeneCo chorus
- "Interrogation Room Challenge" – Rotti
- "Blame Not My Cheeks" – Amber, GeneCo chorus
- "Chromaggia" – Mag
- "Pièce De Résistance" – Rotti
- "Let the Monster Rise" – Nathan, Shilo
- "Sawman's Lament" – Rotti, Luigi, Pavi, Shilo, Nathan
- "The Man Who Made You Sick" – Rotti, Shilo, Nathan
- "Cut the Ties" – Rotti, Luigi, Shilo, Pavi
- "Shilo Turns Against Rotti" – Shilo, Rotti, Nathan
- "I Didn't Know I'd Love You So Much" – Shilo, Nathan
- "Genetic Emancipation" – Shilo
- "Epitaph" – GraveRobber, Zydrate addicts
- "Repo Man" – Ogre (end credits)
- "VUK-R" – Violet UK (end credits)
- "Needle Through a Bug" – Shilo, Graverobber (end credits)
- "Bravi" – Mag, Pavi, Luigi, Rotti, Amber (end credits)
- "Aching Hour" – Sarah Brightman (end credits)
Score tracks
Includes songs only heard as instrumentals and not parts of any deleted songs: (* = instrumental)
- "Depraved Heart Murder at Sanitarium Square"* (First song heard in the film)
- "The Prognosis"* (Heard right after "Crucifixus")
- "Nathan's Story"* (Heard right after "Infected")
- "Rotti's Story"* (Heard right after "Tao of Mag")
- "A Ventriloquist's Mess"* (Heard right after "Thankless Job")
- "Blind Mag's Story"* (Heard right after "Seeing Your Stirs Memories")
- "Before the Escape"* (Heard right after "Inopportune Telephone Call")
- "Worthy Heirs?"* (Heard right after "Zydrate Support Network")
- "A Dump Truck Home"* (Heard right after "Disposal Crew")
- "The Visitor"* (Heard right after "Night Surgeon")
- "Pre-Happiness"* (Heard right after "Seventeen")
- "Not Your Parents' Opera"* (Heard right after "Bloodbath!")
- "Mag's Fall"* (Heard right after "Chromaggia")
- "A Ten Second Opera"* (Heard right after "Let the Monster Rise")
Production
Development
In 1996, Darren Smith had a friend who was going through bankruptcy and whose possessions were going into foreclosure. Inspired by this, Smith came up with the idea of a future where not only one's property, but also one's body parts, could be repossessed. Smith and Terrance Zdunich collaborated ideas and plot lines to create the first version of Repo!, titled The Necromerchant's Debt,[6] which told the story of a grave robber in debt to a Repo Organ Man. It premiered at the John Raitt theater in 2002. After being such a success, Smith and Zdunich expanded on the universe to create all of the storylines that became Repo! The Genetic Opera later in 2002. Many changes were made, gradually, to the characters and music throughout various incarnations through 2005. For example, Rotti, in the earliest performances, was not father to Luigi, Pavi and Amber. Instead, he was a younger brother to Luigi and Pavi,[7] while Amber was Luigi's daughter.[8] Lyrics were adjusted to new arcs and some songs were dropped altogether, such as "But This Is Opera!", cut out in an effort to change the direction of Mag's character.
After years of being performed as a stage play, Repo! was adapted into a ten-minute short film directed and financed by Darren Lynn Bousman to pitch the idea to film studios. The film starred Shawnee Smith as Amber Sweet (then named "Heather Sweet"), Michael Rooker as the Repo Man, Kristen Fairlie as Shilo, Zdunich as GraveRobber and J. Larose as Pavi.[citation needed]
Filming
Once picked up by Lionsgate, principal photography began in September 2007 in Canada.[9] The film was scheduled to be released on April 25, 2008, but was pushed back to November 7. X Japan leader Yoshiki produced the soundtrack, along with composing one extra track for the film.[10]
Release
Theatrical release
The film received a
After initial theatrical release and DVD sales, fan support has caused Repo! The Genetic Opera to be played in select theaters for the duration of 2009 and well into 2014, some with "shadow casts" in which a group of actors and performers re-enact the film in front of the big screen while the film is playing on stage,
Home media
The film was released January 20, 2009 on
Reception
Critical response
On the
Nathan Lee for The New York Times declared the film "feels destined to please a campy coterie of fans and no one else" and criticized the music, saying, "A few catchy melodies, some clever lyrics or even a sense that the score wasn't just one long, unmodulated track might have energized this singularly inert tale..."[19] Tasha Robinson for The A.V. Club said, "One of the main issues with Repo! The Genetic Opera is that nearly every aspect of it goes on too long. The songs are generally overextended, which is a particular problem given that most of them are also atonal and dull, either chanted or seemingly assembled from a series of clunky, ill-fitting, barely rhyming lines." And ultimately "...I spent the vast majority of the film either bored or squirming with discomfort over the cheap gore, the arrhythmic songs, and the phenomenally bombastic performances..."[20]
Box office
Repo! grossed $53,684 in its opening weekend, a $6,711 average per theater. The film's full eleven-theater release earned $146,750 in the United States, and an additional $41,376 internationally, for a total of $188,126 worldwide.[3]
Accolades
Hilton's performance won her the
See also
- Elysium (film)
- Repo Men, a film involving a similar plotline regarding the repossession of transplanted organs
References
- ^ "Year 2008 - Fantasia Festival". Archived from the original on June 5, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
- Blastr. Archived from the originalon July 28, 2011. Retrieved February 4, 2011.
- ^ a b "Repo: The Genetic Opera (2008) - Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
- ^ Rupprecht, Kyle (November 13, 2008). "Repo! The Genetic Opera Goes On The Road". MovieMaker. Archived from the original on November 5, 2018. Retrieved November 4, 2018.
- ^ "Year 2008 - Fantasia Festival". Archived from the original on June 5, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2019.
- ^ terrance (April 18, 2009). "FAQs – 2. How'd you come up with an idea like REPO!?". Terrance Zdunich. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved November 9, 2012.
- ^ "Rotti listed as the youngest Largo brother". Archived from the original on January 15, 2003. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Amber listed as Luci's daughter". Archived from the original on January 12, 2003. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Paris Hilton Gets Movie Musical Role". The Washington Post. July 31, 2007. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
- ^ Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) soundtrack - IMDb, retrieved May 4, 2019
- ^ Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) Archived September 5, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Coming Soon
- ^ a b Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) EOFF
- ^ "Repo! The Genetic Opera" Will Be Seen Around the Country in January Playbill. December 26, 2008
- ^ "Blog Archive " Repo! Is Now Booked In Theatres Through The End Of The Year!". Terrance Zdunich. April 24, 2009. Archived from the original on June 19, 2009. Retrieved July 6, 2009.
- ^ Barton, Steve (July 17, 2010). "San Diego Comic-Con 2010: Repo! Screening and a New Lesson from The Tutor". Dread Central. Retrieved June 8, 2023.
- ^ "Repo! The Genetic Opera (US - DVD R1 / BD RA) in News > Releases at DVDActive". DVDActive. December 1, 2008. Retrieved December 1, 2008.
- ^ "Repo! The Genetic Opera". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- Fandom, Inc.Retrieved October 7, 2023.
- ^ Lee, Nathan (November 6, 2008). "Playing the Organs". The New York Times. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
- ^ Robinson, Tasha (March 11, 2009). "I Watched This On Purpose: Repo! The Genetic Opera". The A.V. Club. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
- ^ "Latest Academy News". September 10, 2014.