Repo The Genetic Opera Interview

Repo! The Genetic Opera is an opera film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw 2-4) and is unlike anything that you will likely see for a long time. It centers around a future with widespread organ failure and a company that legally sells organ replacements. However, if the recipients don't pay, the organs will take them back just as quickly.

The film, which stars Paul Sorvino, Alexa Vega, Paris Hilton, Anthony Stewart Head and singer Sarah Brightman, came out on DVD last week and below is a brief Q&A I had with Bousman, writer Terence Zdunich and Sorvino.

Q: Paul, how did you get involved with the movie?
Sorvino: Actually what happened is you guys somehow got it to my managers. They said there is this thing that is $5000.00. I said for what? 5 minutes? They said, no the whole thing. I said are you out of your mind. Then they said a rock opera. I said I’m an opera singer not a rock opera singer. Just tell them goodbye.
Zdunich: Paul said I didn’t quite get it.

Q: Darren, you have been vocal in your hesitation to meet with Paris Hilton originally. What changed your mind?
Bousman: I think it’s cool to hate Paris Hilton. That’s what’s cool. That’s what’s vogue. I was one of those people until I met her and realized she is not at all who you think she is. I think media portrays her in one second snapshots of her worst moments. Imagine if that were your life? I think that’s not fair. And when I met her I realized she wasn’t who I thought she was and I retract everything negative that I ever said about her.

Q: The film has an eclectic cast. How did the casting process happen?
Bousman: What it was when I read the final version of the screenplay, the screenplay is so weird and out there. And it’s crazy and eccentric and out of the box. The casting had to be weird, crazy, eccentric, and out of the box. When we ended with someone like Paul Sorvino and Alexa Vega, what’s the opposite of Paul Sorvino and Alexa Vega? Paris Hilton. What’s the opposite of Paris Hilton, Sarah Brightman. We tried to cast it eclectically how the script was and we went for the best people.

Q: Lionsgate has kind of just dumped the film on DVD. Because of that, how important is the fanbase to a film like this?
Bousman: Seriously, they don’t understand it. It’s not that they are the enemy, they just don’t get it. It’s our job to show it to them. What we are doing is set fires in every city and we are trying to set the world on fire. Everytime we light a fire they try to put it out, and all of sudden they are trying to put out all of these fires all over the place and realizing they can’t because it’s spreading. And that’s what our job is, it’s like a bad STD – spread it everywhere.

Q: How do you respond to the critics who don't get the film either?
Bousman: They aren’t watching the same movie. They aren’t at the theater watching it when I am watching it. They watch it in a stuffy room with a couple of other critics. Originally isn’t dead, it’s just not rewarded. I think they don’t know how to respond, so they respond to hate.