Too much Repo!


When first looking at "Repo! The Genetic Opera," certain folks might tuck their tails between their legs and run, but look closer and you'll find a dedicated cast and crew who ooze love for this project distributed by Lionsgate.

Directing is "Saw II, III, IV" helmer Darren Lynn Bousman (not the fifth and latest film), well fitted for the task at hand of capturing the essence of the musical-adapted film.

True, there's a lot of media attention surrounding Paris Hilton. You'll probably be asking yourself "Why Paris Hilton out of every actress to fit the role?" In truth, after speaking to Ms. Hilton at the interview, I found her to be very down-to-earth and a much more calm person than she may have been in her previous years. There's a certain shyness to Ms. Hilton despite being in the limelight so often and, turns out, she's actually a very sweet person.

Alexa Vega has certainly matured since her "Spy Kids" flicks, gone is the little girl but the bubbly personality looks in-tact. She's well-spoken and comes off as an intelligent girl with a keen eye on her future.

At first it's Darren Smith (writer) and Alexa Vega (Shilo Wallace). After which, they are followed by Bill Moseley (Luigi Largo), Paris Hilton (Amber Sweet), Darren Lynn Bousman (Director), Terrance Zdunich (Grave Robber and Co-Writer) and Nivek Ogre.

Writer Darren Smith and Actress Alexa Vega

Question to Alexa Vega:
So how did you get involved?

Alexa Vega:
"Well I got involved because the director Darren Bousman contacted me through MySpace and we met and I read the script and he gave me this DVD of a short film he made based off of 'Repo!' and I checked it out and when I started watching it I was hooked. 'Repo!' is so different. It's so special. All the songs are original and when the cast came together...it truly, I think is gonna change the way. If you look at the film, it's so different than anything that's been out there and I feel like it's got so much to offer. It's not just horror, it's not just a musical; it has so much depth. It's more than just, you know, people killing each other and their blood being everywhere. There's like a father daughter love story, it's so much deeper."

Question to Alexa Vega:
Did you have to audition as well?

Alexa Vega:
"It was kind of a different process. They came out to see 'Hairspray' which kind of made it a lot easier just because I was singing there. Then, we flew to California and did...we called them rehearsals but I still knew that the deal wasn't set yet so it was still like if I messed up I would totally...I would have the boot. So we did rehearsals to make sure that I was comfortable with the music. It was so much fun because I had never heard the music other than the one DVD and the one song. And when you read a script you think it's all written in song so you should have seen what this table read was like! It was ridiculous because normally you do a table read and you're just like going through your lines, this was like singing but talking, we didn't really know what to do. It was the weirdest table read I'd been to."

Darren Smith:
*laughing*

"We were sitting at the first table read at the studio and she's sitting next to Sarah Brightman, the songstress, next to Paul Sorvino, next to Paris Hilton. Come on, this is the greatest cast ever!"

Question:
Can you talk about the challenges of turning this into a full-length film?

Darren Smith:
"Well, we've had challenges starting doing it as a ten-minute opera and then we booked a little theatre in L.A. and no sooner we booked it we were like 'Oh sh#t, we haven't even written the rest of this thing, we have two months to do it.' So that's when we got Darren Bousman in, he just came to L.A., you know, as a young director from Kansas City and he said 'I was born to do this part, to direct this' and we were like 'yeah, yeah, yeah, we here that.' But of course, he did a great job. Moving it from that to the movie was difficult because the last thing that we wanted to do was do one of these musicals which look like they're a film version of a stage play.

So we really had to think about this completely devoid of what we really did on stage. On the other hand we were really, unlike a lot of other projects, we'd been doing this for years so we were able to hone what people liked; we got the feedback before we got the film. You know, each time we got to New York and perform for an audience they either like this or they don't and so that helped us, but I think Darren really pulled it off. This is really a filmic experience and I hope that nobody really gets that 'Oh, this looks like it was a stage play that's made into a movie.'"

Question to Alexa Vega:
On this being such a different role for a young actress:

Alexa Vega:
"I couldn't of asked for anything better. After coming out of a really great little kids franchise on 'Spy Kid' films...it was really a lot of fun but anything you do after that, they kind of want to keep you stuck in that little kid world and I've been looking for films that kind of bring me out of that. I was given a really great opportunity and it was so much fun. I love Robert [Rodriguez], Robert is my dad, in fact he's coming to our party tonight. But, you have to try and move on from that and I think that's the hardest thing for kid actors to do is to be able to find that next project that will bring them to the next level."

Question to Alexa Vega:
On working with Paris Hilton

Alexa Vega:
"A year ago, when you heard the name Paris Hilton, not good things came to mind. She was in jail at the time when I found out about all this and the first thing you think is 'But we want to make a movie? Why are you bringing her into this? But she totally...she basically kicked us in the mouth with her performance. Because, she blew us all away, she showed up on set, she was so professional, a sweet girl, so fun to work with. I mean, everything that the media portrayed her as...and maybe it was right at the time, but she is so different from that image that I had in my mind and I think on this film she did a lot of growin and since then she has just become so much more mature. I mean, I went to her house the other day and it's so funny because she's like 'I don't really like to go out any more' and she was just hanging out at the house and baking cookies. I'm like 'Oh my gosh! You're so different from like what you were a year ago.' And it's really nice to see this transformation happen with somebody who has as much power as she does because I think now she's beginning to make really smart career decisions."

Question to Darren Smith:
On any plans on a 'Repo! 2':

Darren Smith:
"Well we certainly hope so. I have hundreds of pages of notes and probably most of it's garbage, but trying to right a prequel or a sequel. I'd also love to take this whole kind of freak show to Las Vegas and make it a permanent, like a Blue Man Group, you know?"
Actor and Co-Writer Terrance Zdunich, Actor Bill Moseley, Musician/Actor Nivek Ogre

Question:
Are you excited about the release or a little apprehensive or all of the above?

Terrance Zdunich:
"Well I think it's all of the above, at least for me. It almost can't come soon enough but at the same time you want people to be aware of it so it has a proper release. We debuted in Fantasia Film Festival just last week and we got to really see it for the first time with a real audience, the whole movie, and it was a wonderful and overwhelming experience."

Question:
How would you tell people what this film is about?

Terrance Zdunich:
"I think the most natural comparison would be 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' and I look 'Rocky Horror Picture Show and I think that's because: one - there's music involved, there's rock music involved, there's horror involved, there's certain futurism involved. But I think where 'Rocky Horror' leaves off and where we began is 'Rocky Horror' is a musical which means basically there's spoken dialogue and then there's sung numbers.'Repo!' is actually an opera which means that it's all sung. And then two - I love 'Rocky Horror' for this; 'Rocky Horror' is all basically about the camp and the flash and the fun and the glitter, and 'Repo!' has all that but I think 'Repo!' at it's heart actually has heart, it actually has a real human story at the center of it, even though there's all this wackiness. So I like to think that 'Repo!' is kind of a 21st century opera."

Nivek Ogre:
"I'm Pavi, face-stealing lothario"

Terrance Zdunich:
"I'm Terrance Zdunich, I'm the co-writer and composer and I play Grave-Robber in the film."

Bill Moseley:
"I'm Bill Moseley and I play Pavi Largo''s brother Luigi and we're constantly in struggles with one-another and our sister Amber Sweet, played by the redoubtable Paris Hilton and all of us are competing to try to be the next leader of GeneCo. Our father Rotti Largo, played by Paul Sorvino who's the head of the company and he's got a bad cough so we're all thinking about maybe succeeding him. And Luigi is a very violent character and overgearing but...I love my dad! I don't know about my brother but I certainly love my sister...I certainly love my sister."

Question:
What was it like working with Paris Hilton?

Nivek Ogre:
"Oh she was great! I think, coming from me, you see a lot of stuff written about somebody and you try not to let that affect how you see somebody. And then you see them in real life and you kind of see the more humanistic aspects of anybody and that kind of takes you a step back from all the things you try filter out on your own daily...you know, being bombarded by all these things about people and stuff like that. So there's things about her definitely that I can relate to, I see the struggle she has and I see what the human issue is ultimately, so that was a good experience."

Terrance Zdunich:
"It was a room full of metal guys basically and their kind of like 'Paris?' and she came in, and since at this point, I knew I was going to be playing Grave-Robber and Grave-Robber has, sort of intimate scenes with the character Amber Sweet that Paris plays. And so I'm there and we watched Paris come in and sing this song, she auditioned in this rool full of studio guys including myself and the two Darrens. And then the two Darrens sort of volunteer me to go up there, they were like 'Oh, Terrance is gonna play Grave-Robberr in the film. Here, use him as a prop!' So it was sort of a surreal experience; because on the one hand I'm sort of like...it's seems like it should be cool right, oh cool, you know this mega-celebrity is gonna kinda do a striptease almost for me. But she got down and she was professional and I was completely uncomfortable. It was really uncomfortable...watching...but then I realized no one was watching me anyway. And I got to relax and sort of watch it myself."

Zdunich's girlfriend is sitting on the table behind us and Moseley pipes "She was watching! Like a f#cking hawk!"

Terrance Zdunich:
"But anyway, so I realized nobody was matching me, they were watching her...and they were right to watch her, because she was doing a good job. That's when we were like 'Yeah, she's our Amber Sweet.' We saw a lot of girls for the part, she definitely stood out."

Director Darren Lynn Bousman and Actress Paris Hilton

Question:
On getting the part of Amber Sweet:

Paris Hilton:
"I really worked hard for this role. Just getting a role like this offered to me was new to me because I always get offered a certain role just basically playing myself. So, being able to be completely different from that and just show everyone that I can do much more than people have given me to do And, just a lot of training, from my album, it's completely different this music, so I had to get a whole new voice coach and train to do this. It was a long, hard process but I worked really hard and I was so proud when I got it, so excited."

Question:
Did the end result live up to your expectations or surpass them?

Paris Hilton:
"Oh definitely surpassed. When I saw this movie...you can't picture it; even watching on the screen, it's just so beautifully shot and Darren did an incredible job."

Darren Lynn Bousman:
"I think this is definitely a movie...I made a big point that I would not show it to the cast until they actually saw it in the theatre. Because, this is not a movie that really lends itself to...this is the kind of movie that I want to become an event. By an event I mean there are certain movies that are fine to watch on a DVD, a little laptop, and other movies you just have to be there. I made sure that when I showed it to Paris she was in a theatre in the right proper way and I think that's the best way to see it for the first time."

Question:
How would you describe the film to someone who doesn't know anything about it?

Paris Hilton:
"It reminds me of 'Rocky Horror Picture Show' meets 'Blade Runner.' Just the music is incredible, it's really futuristic. There's like a story to it as well though. There's a sweet story."

Darren Lynn Bousman:
"Yeah, on the outside it's this gruesome horror film of violence, whatever, but at the heart, it's a father/daughter love story. It's a drama, it's a tragedy, and I think that, I mean, it follows opera in the classic sense that it's this bigger than life tragedy and all of these characters interconnect and have their final showdown at the Genetic Opera."

Question:
How did directing this compare to previous films you've directed?

Darren Lynn Bousman:
"Directing this...directing the 'Saws' was like a cake walk compared to this. I mean, I've learned how to direct on this movie. Seriously, because with 'Saw' it became like a machine. Like, it was the same crew, same cast, same everything. With this, I wanted to distance myself from 'Saw' and the fact that...you know, 'Saw's' known for one thing; it's known for the twist endings and Jigsaw and the quick cutting. But, I wanted this to be a different experience for the audience, so the first thing I did was I did not shoot it on film, I wanted to have a different look. I mean, not use the same lenses I used in 'Saw.' I changed cinematographers, I did everything I could to try to make this its own universe. I wanted to make it fantastical. This was so hard, on top of directing the movie, I had to do a month of choreography and then we had to do two months recording the album and then mixing the album. So this was like...I mean it was huge...huge compared to 'Saw' with half the budget of 'Saw.'"

Question:
Did you always feel that you had an opera in you?

Darren Lynn Bousman:
"Yeah, you know someone asked me prior to this what made me leave the 'Saw' films to do an opera. That's not how it happened; I did an opera, then did the 'Saw' films, then went back to this. I started off doing 'Repo!'...'Repo!' was the first thing I ever did. I cam to Los Angeles in 2001 and it was the first thing I ever directed in 2002 and then I got 'Saw' right after that. So yeah, I'm a hugh music theatre fan. That being said, I would call this movie like the anti 'Dreamgirls.' I want to make a movie for people...I like music, but I like things like 'Rocky Horror Picture Show,' 'Tommy,' 'Jesus Chris Superstar.' I'm not the kind of guy that goes and sees 'Dreamgirls' and I want to appeal to those people - the people who won't go watch 'Rent,' won't go watch 'Dreamgirls,' won't go watch 'Mamma Mia!' Come watch this, it's different."

Question:
What was the goriest moment for you. Was there anything that grossed you out?

Paris Hilton:
"Yes...am I allowed to say it?" she says to Bousman.

Darren Lynn Bousman:
"Yes...well, no, no. I'm gonna answer for her on that one. I know what she's talking about. An unfortunate event happens to Paris in the movie and it was pretty intense and pretty gruesome."

Paris Hilton:
"I look like Freddie Kreuger!" she laughs.

Darren Lynn Bousman:
"Yeah, she has a bad, botched surgery and I can tell you that much."

Paris Hilton:
The restrictions of working with a low budget

Darren Lynn Bousman:
"There was no budget. I think one of the biggest accomplishments of this movie was that it was a labor of love for everyone. None of the actors made any money. They got paid absolutely scale. None of the crew made any money and yet, they were working around the clock on this thing. You know, I had ideas that I wanted three hundred, four hundred person opera sprawling shots of all these people and they were like 'No, you have five.' And I was like 'Ok. I want this thing with like thirty S.W.A.T. guys...' and they were like 'No, you have one S.W.A.T. guy.' And it's like every time I said I wanted something...but the great thing about the movie is...watching it, you'd never know it's low-budget at all and I think that it looks much bigger than any of the 'Saw' films."

Question:
On people being blown away when they meet her and the misconceptions about her:

Paris Hilton:
"I think there's a lot of misconceptions. I think people have been watching my reality show 'The Simple Life' where I was playing this airhead, rich, brat, kind of character and now, seven years later people still kind of picture me as that character. I'm completely different from that. I think people are kind of blown away when they meet me or they see I'm not what they read about on the internet or in the tabloids."

Sources: 1, 2 and 3.

(Post a new comment)

	superhetoric 2008-08-30 04:17 am UTC (link)
	this will do extremely well with alt.nerds and people who like joss whedon (Reply to this)

	annasaurusss 2008-08-30 04:18 am UTC (link)
	Alexa Vega really grew into her looks, she's gorgeous now. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	beatslikebombs 2008-08-30 04:34 am UTC (link)
	definitelyyy (Reply to this) (Parent)

	valardohaeris 2008-08-30 04:20 am UTC (link)
	Amber Sweet is addicted to the knife. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	x_bartleby 2008-08-30 04:23 am UTC (link)
	Addicted to the knife? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - valardohaeris, 2008-08-30 04:28 am UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - bbgood, 2008-08-30 05:08 am UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - benji_celebrity, 2008-08-30 05:09 am UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - paradise_loved, 2008-08-30 05:28 am UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - lifelongfling, 2008-08-30 05:45 am UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - paradise_loved, 2008-08-30 05:48 am UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - princessjasumin, 2008-08-30 02:29 pm UTC (Expand)

	boyhaunted 2008-08-30 04:21 am UTC (link)
	Can't wait! (Reply to this)

	herbeauty 2008-08-30 04:26 am UTC (link)
	alexa vega peaked in spy kids (Reply to this) (Thread)

	beaute__exquise 2008-08-30 04:33 am UTC (link)
	omg i didn't even recognize her. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	isle of, isle of.... pikapika217 2008-08-30 04:29 am UTC (link)
	the first two movies were FIRE. the last one was suck. especially the weak ass ending. W.T.F. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: isle of, isle of.... beatslikebombs 2008-08-30 04:34 am UTC (link)
	WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WHYYY! WHAT DO I INTEND TO FIIIIND? ahaha and yeah the last one definitely sucked. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

Re: isle of, isle of.... - pikapika217, 2008-08-30 04:44 am UTC (Expand)

	novemberbaby85 2008-08-30 04:34 am UTC (link)
	I can't believe Alexa is already 20. It doesn't feel like the spy kids movies were out that long ago. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	bffkitty 2008-08-30 10:13 pm UTC (link)
	I remember seeing the second movie for a field trip in elementary school. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	natvach 2008-08-30 04:34 am UTC (link)
	Not gonna lie, the Grave Robber dude is kind of hot (Reply to this) (Thread)(Expand)

	7daysandnights 2008-08-30 06:49 am UTC (link)
	IAWTC he can press his gun against my anatomy any time (Reply to this) (Parent)

(no subject) - midnight_lite, 2008-08-30 08:05 am UTC (Expand)

I Thought So Too, But... - hellb, 2008-08-30 12:00 pm UTC (Expand)

(no subject) - nightquest1976, 2008-08-30 10:33 pm UTC (Expand)

	beatslikebombs 2008-08-30 04:35 am UTC (link)
	idk i kind of want to see this but i was going to wait for the dvd, but according to the director it's the kind of movie you have to watch in a theatre... (Reply to this) (Thread)

	bbgood 2008-08-30 05:06 am UTC (link)
	this is deff a theater kind of movie but i heard its going to only 10 screens :( GAY (Reply to this) (Parent)

	rizuki 2008-08-30 05:04 am UTC (link)
	zydrate anatomy & at the opera tonight = best songs. so excited. (Reply to this)

	luna_incognita 2008-08-30 05:06 am UTC (link)
	Vega is such a cutie now! OMG (Reply to this)

	bbgood 2008-08-30 05:06 am UTC (link)
	omg cant wait! (Reply to this) (Thread)

	benji_celebrity 2008-08-30 05:10 am UTC (link)
	IA BB! :D Paris ftw, haters to the left. ;) (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)

(no subject) - bbgood, 2008-08-30 08:13 am UTC (Expand)

	sparrowxx 2008-08-30 05:51 am UTC (link)
	This movie just needs to be released. I swear if they move it from Nov. 7th I'll kill a bitch. (Reply to this)

	brothorsport 2008-08-30 05:58 am UTC (link)
	i love paris now when does this shit come out (Reply to this) (Thread)

	bbgood 2008-08-30 08:14 am UTC (link)
	November 7th i believe? soundtrack September 30th (Reply to this) (Parent)

	merryhatebear 2008-08-30 06:04 am UTC (link)
	Bah...I hate to admit it but I'm sure I'll end up seeing this. Bill Moseley is always pretty good (and a really nice guy!), Nivek Ogre is awesome and does good music and performance art and isn't Sarah Brightman in this too??? Yeah....I'm a nerd I guess. (Reply to this)

	russells_sign 2008-08-30 06:25 am UTC (link)
	i really want to see this and i have no shame about it. i hope they show it in atlanta or nashville (Reply to this)

	goldenrosalie 2008-08-30 06:27 am UTC (link)
	whoa! this is awesome, I can't wait for this movie (Reply to this)

	divaty 2008-08-30 07:43 am UTC (link)
	(Reply to this)

	versinae 2008-08-30 07:56 am UTC (link)
	Whoa, never thought I'd be reading a quote where Ogre is talking about how nice Paris Hilton is. The Palin VP choice must have set off a whole bunch of flying pigs, here's another one! (Reply to this)

	violatekate 2008-08-30 08:38 am UTC (link)
	i can't wait :D (Reply to this)

	psychicherz 2008-08-30 10:14 am UTC (link)
	When is this going to be released? I need to see this! (Reply to this)

	uffeurin 2008-08-30 11:32 am UTC (link)
	OGRE! (Reply to this)

	Oh Hells Yes!!!!! Repo! tazzy_nz 2008-08-30 12:26 pm UTC (link)
	Thank you so much for the repo post! Can't get enough of this at the moment!!!! Can't wait for the movie to come out! AWESOME!!!!! (Reply to this)

	jennalol927 2008-08-30 01:12 pm UTC (link)
	WHERE'S GILES? D: (Reply to this)

	mylastview 2008-08-30 02:32 pm UTC (link)
	This is going to be amazing. (Reply to this)

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