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REPO! vs Repo

On March 19th, a Universal Pictures film entitled Repo Men will enter theaters. This film envisions a near-future world in which replacement organs can be purchased on payment plans available from a giant corporation. In the event that an organ buyer defaults on payment, the company dispatches “repo men” to retrieve the company’s property, which will presumably result in the death or at least the suffering of the victim. This is the backdrop against which the story in Repo Men takes place.

If this movie concept seems eerily familiar to you, you’re in good company. As many fans have already noted, this is exactly the same concept found in the 2008 Lionsgate film REPO! The Genetic Opera. So, is this an incident of film plagiarism? Well, as REPO! co-creator Terrance Zdunich notes in his blog, the situation (at least from a legal standpoint) is far more complicated.

To begin with, there can be no doubt about where this common concept originated. Regardless of whether or not the Universal film is “deeply inspired by” REPO! The Genetic Opera, REPO! is the older of the two, its release predating Repo Men by about a year and a half. Even in terms of origin, REPO! The Genetic Opera came first: it is documented as a stage performance in 2001/2002 (and, indeed, traces its origins back to the late 90s), while Repo Men is stated to have been based on the novel Repossession Mambo, which was published in 2009. Even taking all claims at face value and assuming Repossession Mambo spent several years being drafted, there can be no question that REPO! The Genetic Opera has the older lineage.

Certainly, this may be a case of an amazing idea occurring in two different locations (although one can hardly fault REPO! supporters for seeing something suspicious in so significant a coincidence). Alternatively, there may be something untoward afoot (it would hardly be a first time for Hollywood). But what people may overlook in this situation is the more universal lesson: the terrible reality that while you can copyright a story, you cannot copyright a concept.

The REPO! vs Repo situation should be especially chilling to any writer watching it play out. As Zdunich notes, to prove foul play in a court of law (the only way he and co-creator Darren Smith would be able to receive compensation from Repo Men) they would have to prove that their dialogue was being plagiarized by Repo Men. Presumably they could have tried to demonstrate a case of plagiarized plot or copied characters, but that would still remain difficult to demonstrate if exact wording was not copied. And unfortunately for them, this is not the case.

As far as the text is concerned, REPO! The Genetic Opera and Repo Men are two different films. They have different characters, their plotlines and events are distinct, and they do not share a common setting (certain broad parallels aside). What they do share is a concept, one that is critical to both of the films: the idea of a world in which organs can be obtained on payment plans, which can then be repossessed in the event of failure to pay. Without this concept, neither film could exist in an identifiable form. This concept is perhaps the most important part of REPO! The Genetic Opera created by Zdunich and Smith, and it is precisely the one major aspect of their creation that they cannot copyright. The most troubling issue here is not whether or not Repo Men is plagiarizing REPO! The Genetic Opera, but that Zdunich and Smith cannot benefit from the fact that their idea existed in an identifiable form first.

What is also troubling about this situation is that Repo Men will probably be a good film, just as REPO! The Genetic Opera is. Repo Men looks to have a significantly larger budget than REPO! (which REPO! could certainly have used, although one never ceases to be impressed by how well REPO! turned out in spite of its financial restrictions). Both movies have excellent casts, though it seems unlikely that the villain in Repo Men will be able to equal the majestic evil portrayed by Paul Sorvino. And Repo Men is certainly enjoying far more advertising and release support from Universal than REPO! ever received from Lionsgate, which will no doubt help its success. But no matter how good Repo Men proves to be, it cannot remove the sinister taint associated with it, a taint that reminds the artistic community just how vulnerable their creations are.

Let this be a warning to creative people everywhere: guard your creations well, but at the same time steel yourselves for the possibility of a Repo befalling you. You can copyright your stories, you can copyright your art, but you cannot copyright the beautiful ideas that give them their uniqueness and life. It is frightening and it is upsetting, but it is inescapable.


As an author, G. D. Falksen is understandably very concerned about the fragile position of creative people. More details can be found at his Twitter.

About the Author

GD Falksen

Author

My name is G. D. Falksen and I am an author and a student of history. I have given lectures in the past on various topics including the steampunk genre and subculture. More details can be found on my website: http://www.gdfalksen.com
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BWG
15 years ago

Interesting article. As a budding writer, these scenarios intrigue me greatly.
I’m very excited for Repo Men, and have never heard of REPO!, but after this article I’m going to give it a rent to see what’s what before I jump in line this Friday for Repo Men.
Thanks for bringing stuff like this to attention.

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15 years ago

I may be in the minority here, but I have to disagree with you, G.D. Don’t get me wrong–if it can be shown that the makers of Repo Men or Reposession Mambo did plagiarize dialogue, characters, or even settings (at a more specific level than “a world where organs can be repossessed”) from Zdunich and Smith, I’m all for their being held liable.

But the fact that you can’t copyright an idea doesn’t concern me, or frighten me, or upset me. I’m glad that there are at least some brakes on the increasing amount of protection for intellectual property that we as a society are giving to creators.

I could go on about this at length (and indeed, in other forms, such as my A-paper, I do), but others have done it better than I, and I’m on Spring Break this week anyway, so the last thing I want to do is rehash my curriculum. So I’ll just say, as important as protecting intellectual property is, we should keep in mind that copyright (in the United States, at least) is intended as a limited monopoly for the progress of science, art, and society. A world where everything is protected doesn’t accomplish that.

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smoothrobg
15 years ago

the new movie looks familiar to me:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=9772

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15 years ago

While I admit that when I saw the commercials for Repo Men I wondered if there was a connection, I don’t know that there really is a problem here – if ideas couldn’t be endlessly re-used we simply wouldn’t have much of our entertainment. I mean, look at Avatar – it took the core idea from ‘Dances With Wolves’, but re-imagined it with 10 foot tall smurfs, and combat while a-dragonback. And while that’s an extreme case, almost everything is derivative of something.

Heck, that’s what the purpose of the whole SF canon is, these days. Nobody has to explain wormholes, hyperspace, Dyson spheres, or many other things, because today’s writers build on that, and sometimes, if we’re lucky, take things just a little farther, or in a slightly new direction.

NeuroMan42
NeuroMan42
15 years ago

Unfortunately in this day and age, everything is somewhat stolen from everywhere else. This is the ReMix Nation now, but I do think that the creators of the film did cut chunks from the great rock-opera. Avatard is one of the worse remixes in recent years… stolen story, dialog, music, and design. :)

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15 years ago

“the terrible reality that… you cannot copyright a concept.”

Wow, I couldn’t disagree more. That’s not terrible–that’s wonderful!

Disregarding for a moment that execution is usually more important to a story’s success than the underlying ideas, where would we be if you could, in fact, copyright concepts? The fantasy genre as we know it would not exist, as countless authors would’ve been sued into oblivion by Tolkien’s estate. Tim Powers could go after anyone who wrote steampunk (and the word “steampunk” wouldn’t exist as the guy who coined it couldn’t have written in the subgenre to begin with). Avatar would’ve been pulled from theaters as the makers of Dances With Wolves (or possibly Pocahontas?) sued James Cameron.

The list goes on.

I understand where you’re coming from–nobody likes to see someone else nick their ideas. But the fact that this happens is a good thing for all creative fields.

Edit: I see that Artanian had the same comment re: Avatar. I hope s/he doesn’t sue me!

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N. Mamatas
15 years ago

Dennis Etchison’s short story “The Machine Demands a Sacrifice” (1972) covers similar ground. It’s about scavengers rather than repomen though.

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15 years ago

Thinking about it, there are actually quite a few things that still could be done with the concept. How about instead of just organs, whole bodies? In Richard Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels one can switch bodies by just being downloaded into it. I recall an offhand comment in ‘Altered Carbon’ about paying for a sleeve (body) mortgage. What would it be like to be a repo-man for these, or to be a debtor hiding?

The possibilities behind this idea are just barely scratched, why would we ever want to foreclose being able to explore them?

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15 years ago

It’s very common in Hollywood for two writers to come up with the exact same idea at the exact same time without either one being influenced by the other. Everyone’s swimming in the same cultural and social pool down there so your “unique” idea tends to occur to at least 50 other people due to living in basically the same set of circumstances. Those 50 people get whittled down to 10 who actually manage to write a script that gets read by an agent, then to 5 who get picked up by a studio, then down to 1 or 2 who actually get shot, distributed, and released.

I’m more under the mindset that this is similar to what happened here. The chances of someone seeing REPO! in 2008, writing a script, getting an agent to send it to a studio, getting someone in a studio to actually read it, shop it, purchase it, rewrite it a dozen or so times by two dozen different writers, get actors and a director attached, go through even more rewrites, shoot it, post it, focus group it, do reshoots and pick ups, re-focus group it, re-post it, send out screener copies, finalize it, sell it to theater companies, and get it onto a nation wide release in, what, 18 months, is highly unlikely to me.

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15 years ago

When I first saw the Repo Men trailer, I thought, “Hey, that looks like REPO! only without the crappy music! Awesome!”

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15 years ago

wsean @@@@@ 6: Actually I’d be down for DWW suing the pants of Cameron if it mean that Avatar was driven out of theaters. That movie well and truly pisses me off. And the fact that it was even nominated for an Oscar sets my blood boiling. But that’s my own personal vendetta. Side note: I also hate DWW with the fire of a thousand suns and would love that movie (along with Gone With The Wind and Birth Of A Nation) into the sealed tomb of Horrible Movies That Never Again Need To See The Light Of Day.

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Rev_V
15 years ago

I wonder how the fans of Repo! would feel if they knew that the concept of the movie they are so rabid about was ripped off of the 1997 award winning play “Harvest”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvest_%28play%29

Be careful how loud you scream about things, or the spotlight may very well be turned on you.

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Eilinel
15 years ago

@Milo1313: “The chances of someone seeing REPO! in 2008, writing a script, getting an agent to send it to a studio, getting someone in a studio…”

Well to be fair, it is very likely since they are claiming the movie is based on a book that wasn’t published until 2009, after Repo! had already been released. If it is based on a book that wasn’t released until after the movie had already been out, how is it hard to believe it is taken from the movie? Not to mention, Repo! was a fringe and then off-broadway play long before it was a movie. The concepts behind Repo! and Repo Men have been around for years as the play before it was a movie.

15 years ago

Having been a rabid Repo! fan up until my wait for the release settled down upon watching it and still being a supporter of the community as well as Darren and Terrance (both great guys from all accounts I’ve heard and seen), I think I was in the minority that didn’t jump to the plagiarism conclusion. Using the same concept, yeah, sure but it’s not an opera and it’s more of an action movie This is all fairly common at this point as the movie approaches its release.

There are only so many concepts in the world and anyone who says that concepts should be the sole belonging to the person that dreamed it up is a bit bonkers. As someone pointed out, Fantasy fiction wouldn’t exist if Tolkien owned those concepts. We wouldn’t have Coraline without Alice in Wonderland (or if you REALLY wanna get deep with the fantastic Mr. Gaiman, The Graveyard Book without the Jungle Book and he’s BLATANT about that one).

New concepts are great and make the world go round. Their execution is what separates them.

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somebodyelse
15 years ago

If memory serves me correctly, I believe Repo! was at one time going to be made through Universal. Work began on the film, but things weren’t shaping up to everyone’s liking. The film ended up getting made through Lionsgate. Universal was left with plans for a film about organ repossessions in a dystopian future, and it would seem they have spent the past couple of years shamelessly formulating these plans into the film Repo Men.

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Engine51dave
15 years ago

These are two different films based on an idea..

Now “FearDotCom” vs. “The Ring”
Those were such similar movies; I watched one then the other with a total sense of De Ja Vue.
If a concept could be copywritten we wouldn’t have such a vast vampire movie genre.

I will not support the Repo Men film.

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TracyB124
15 years ago

Universal was in talks with the Repo! creators in 2005 or 2006 to make it into a movie. The reason they did not make it was that Universal wanted to have the music left out of the film. The creators, Darren and Terrance, said no. They did not sign the contract, and they walked away. But Universal still had a copy of the Repo! script and knew the concept of the film, so they took it to a writer and told him to rework it so they could use it without getting sued. They had the book made up so they could claim it wasn’t based on Repo!. But this is a true case of a creator’s work being stolen. This was all discussed during the Q&A at the Repo! road shows last year.

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whiterabbit0091
15 years ago

In all honesty, i know that there isn’t anything legally that can be done to change that Repo Men is ripping off Repo! the genetic opera. I just feel sympathy for Darren and Terrance (of whom i have met in person on multiple occasion, and they are great guys). This story started off as a small skit, which then turned into a full play and then was a movie. this has been their “baby” for years and now they aren’t going to get any credit for it. that is what upsets me more then anything. when Repo! came out, Lionsgate backed out and wouldn’t support or promote the movie, so not many people have heard about it. Now Repomen is coming out, and Universal is promoting the movie, so they are going to be the ones getting all the credit and no one is ever going to know the beauty and creativity of the original creation.

15 years ago

Saying “no one is ever going to know” is a bit…extreme. There’s whole legions of Repo! fans and they’re as voracious in their love as the Rocky Horror fans and Bruce Campbell fans. Will the mainstream know? Unlikely, but no one? C’mon.

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enigmadox
15 years ago

Universal should at least give Repo! some lip service (pun intended^_^) and include honorable mention of the originator in their ad campaign. It would go a long way in dispelling any sour feelings toward their mainstream take on a truely spectacular artistic creation. While still unknown by the masses, Repo! has multitudes of loyal fans that are dedicated to letting everyone know about all the hard work and long years behind Repo! So Universal should step up and not muddy the creative waters by taking credit for the little guys idea. They might need them in the not so distant future because it seems their creativity has run dry. ^_^

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Draith
15 years ago

What’s interesting is that a couple of months ago, all sources I could find stated that the Repossession Mambo novel was published in 2008, the same year as the release of Repo!TGO… Those same sources now say it was published in 2009.

Eric Garcia, the author of The Repossession Mambo, claims that it was written enough in 2001 or 2002 that it was already being adapted for a screenplay at that time. He also claims that it was based on a short story he wrote in 1997 called “The Telltale Pancreas,” though the story, according to Garcia, was never published. (I am curious, however, as to the nature of a novel by an already accomplished author taking nearly 10 years to finish/publish…)

Even allowing for that, Repo! The Genetic Opera (with 10-minute opera roots in the late 90’s) is at least as old as the very, very beginnings of Garcia’s ideas in his short story (which, due to it’s lack of public release, no one knows if it is anything like the eventual novel or Repo! itself).
The major point? Garcia et. all claim there is no controversy, that Repo! fans are just making something out of a very big coincidence. Personally, however, I doubt that if Repo!TGO had gotten a larger theatrical release and had been able to build a larger fan base early on that this controversy would be as dismissible as it seems to be to those involved in the Repo Men project.

Also, @@@@@ Rev_V ,
Have you read the link you posted? The only thing that is even remotely similar to the synopsis of Repo! The Genetic Opera is the sale of bodily organs for money… Which is only one tiny facet of the plot and point of Repo!… ;)

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15 years ago

I’m with most people here, Thank Goodness that ideas can’t be copyrighted. Praise Peace. Damn.

Also, for the Repo fans, its time of major aquisition of new fans was over, but now there’s a new path into Repo! fandom as people who like this new flick will look for other stuff like it.

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15 years ago

“the terrible reality that while you can copyright a story, you cannot copyright a concept.”

How’s that terrible? If concepts could be copyrighted, most sf and fantasy, indeed most fiction, simply couldn’t exist. I love REPO!, but why is the fact that it shares a concept with anopther movie, or a novel, such a big deal?

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ThatOneChick
15 years ago

It’s unfortunate, but no matter what it’s always going to happen. At least on a positive side, maybe the attention garnered from this movie will entice people to look further into it, thus finding the whole new world that is Repo!.

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Annalize Braceful
15 years ago

I am a Repo! The Genetic Opera fan. And I am outraged that the creators can do nothing but sit back and watch Jude Law and Forrest Wittaker make money off of their idea.

Of course the musical is ten times better. And I hope that Repo Men is a flop because they do not deserve success. Its plagiarism, simple and plain.

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Misti J.
15 years ago

I will NOT be seeing “Repo Men.” I am an avid fan of “Repo!” While general ideas are often re-used and/or borrowed, there are far more similarities between these two movies than this article mentions. It’s as close to plagiarism as you can get without it actually being plagiarism. They just changed some details (like a red powder instead of blue liquid and calling it “Q” instead of “Z”) and wording so they wouldn’t get sued. And while the music may have been darker and more gothic than what majority of people are used to it was freakin’ AWESOME! Though I do admit that even I could do without a couple of the songs. I hope “Repo Men” flops big time and I’m gonna do my part to try to see that it does!

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Plushy
15 years ago

Excellent article, well researched (unlike some others I’ve seen on this subject). Despite being a massive Repo! fan, I haven’t joined any of the boycott Repo Men groups – I’m not opposed to the idea of a film with the same concept, I’m just saddened by the way it has happened. Repo! turned out wonderfully despite the limited financial backing and promotion and has inspired a cult following. I suppose this is the way of the world though. Repo Men appears to be another bland, paint-by-numbers, Hollywood action-fest, its substantial wave of promotion has not tempted me to see it. I’d much rather watch Repo! for the umpteenth time.

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15 years ago

I saw an ad for Repo Men last night and instantly thought, “hey, that’s the same premise as REPO! The Genetic Opera!” So I’m grateful to the poster and commenters for telling me more about the situation. Sounds similar to the murky story surrounding Babylon 5 & Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

(The two movies do sound very distinct, as distinct as The Truman Show is from Ed TV, or Run Lola Run is from The Butterfly Effect, or any other number of pairs I could name. As Roger Ebert notes, a film is not about what it is about, but how it is about it.)

But as I read further and further in Falksen’s article, I thought, surely you’re kidding? Yes, it is a good and proper thing that you can’t copyright a premise for a fictional work. Our cultural DNA is shared, and it’s perfectly legitimate to pay homage, or pastiche, or independently invent, or borrow some chromosomes. In fact, I have an analogy kicking around in my head — an analogy between laying claim to a premise or plot device or character type or some other imaginative figment, and repossessing a transplanted organ.

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Thabershaw
15 years ago

You all realize that Repo Men was a book published in 2009 called the Repossession Mambo by Eric Garcia. The movie is based on this book.

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Dave Fried
15 years ago

Not only is the very idea that you could patent or copyright a concept completely awful, it’s also absolutely possible to do in the software world.

This leads to all sorts of horrendous things like patent trolls – IP holding companies that do nothing but sue to make money – and ridiculous claims and counterclaims that stifle competition (see also: the 1-Click patent).

Half the articles on slashdot are about absurd patent claims, many of which prevent useful items and software from coming to market or make them more expensive for consumers.

But let’s say that you could allow ideas in fiction to be copyrighted or patented. Don’t you think that the big studios would just hire armies of writers to brainstorm every possible story hook and publish big collections of short stories so that none of the competition – including fiction writers like you – could ever publish or produce anything ever again?

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15 years ago

I’m so very glad that ideas are not copyrighted. Whole genres and sub-genres of fiction would be wiped off the map. In my opinion, its not so much the concepts that are important but rather their execution.

As far as the selling of body parts concept goes, I remember at least one episode of Max Headroom back in the 80’s with the same premise and I am sure there are other older examples of the same concept.

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15 years ago

Producer Lynda Obst’s Hello, He Lied talks about her involvement with the infamous Duelling Volcano movies (Dante’s Peak and, of course, Volcano), as well as the even more egregious case of her adaptation of The Hot Zone getting elbowed out by the suspiciously similarly-premised (but, in her opinion, much stupider) film Outbreak.

My point is, this happens all the time in Hollywood, and it’s one of the realities of working in the entertainment business that everyone simply has to suck up and deal with.

And yeah, on an individual level the experience can be heartbreaking, but when you consider the ramifications of allowing copyright of ideas, it’s clearly (in my opinion) the lesser of two evils.

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UltraNystedt
15 years ago

Cool Article. I’m a huge fan of REPO! and was wondering what the deal was. I figured people just weren’t ready for a gruesome musical so they made it into an action flick. But that clearly was not the case :P

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15 years ago

I’m a huge fan of REPO! and will inevitably end up seeing Repo Men eventually.

But neither were particularly original in the concept of organ repossession, as that is a trope used in Cyberpunk, even mentioned in the Netrunner card game published in 1996.

Be glad, very glad, that ideas cannot be copyrighted.

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Carrie Laben
15 years ago

The whole concept of “what is an idea” is left very nebulous here. If “repossessing used organs” is a discrete idea, how is “wizard goes to boarding school” not? Yet clearly, more than one author is allowed to write on that premise and we rightfully mock those who argue otherwise on an ethical, let alone a legal, basis. Yet once you get past repossessing organs the details of the films are almost completely different.

In the other direction, the idea of selling organs and the idea of taking organs from the unwilling for economic reasons are already both out of copyright as they’re part of our modern folklore, and with those two notions in the mix repossession isn’t exactly a stretch.

So essentially, to make the argument that the Repo! authors have been wronged, you have to pick a level of specificity for the definition of an idea that isn’t sustainable when you extrapolate it to other cases.

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15 years ago

Others have made this comments already, so I’ll just add my voice to theirs: Ideas cannot be copyrighted, expression of those ideas can. This is as it should be.

We grant copyright–a monopoly on a particular expression–only so far as it necessary to encourage the creation of new art and invention. Every story written now owes a debt to something that came before it. To allow ideas to come under copyright would be to undermine the foundation of creativity.

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XtremeCaffeine
15 years ago

Howdy…

Well, I’m a Repo TGO fan.

When I saw the ads for this film, I knew that I was seeing an ad for a remake… Without any of the redeeming features of Repo.

Ideas can’t be copyrighted, but we wouldn’t be having this conversation if it was two big studios. When it’s such an obvious move by a big firm over a smaller grouping, it’s a predatory capital move and that’s what I’m against – go ahead, remake the movie in the dull mainstream mould, but at least admit you’re remaking, admit that you took the ideas from the obvious source, and recompense the authors, because this is all about money, so make it a money deal. If it’s about art, make it an art deal.

But don’t throw us a steak and tell us you reared the cow by hand in your living room.

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mikecarusocrg
15 years ago

What about Monty Python? The Meaning of Life in 1983 had a scene with John Cleese and Graham Chapman harvesting a liver. Granted that was collecting from an organ donor a little prematurely, but still…

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TaraDammit
15 years ago

I would like to thank the author for a well-researched and -written treatise on this controversy. Granted, the majority of the populace probably isn’t even aware of REPO! TGO… yet.

Personally, I am vexed by the similarities in presentation that have already been documented between the two films (See the Feb. 26 post on http://spookydan.com/ for details.) I am frustrated on behalf of Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich, who have to watch as the industry steam-rolls over a concept they nurtured and developed with painstaking and loving care.

No, I don’t disagree with those here who comment that it’s a GOOD thing “concepts” cannot be copywritten. It just saddens me to see something so unique and passionate taken over by ‘big’ industry and “given the Hollywood treatment.” I’m not sure I want to see RepoMen, not because I’m an angry REPO! TGO fan, but because I think it would leave a bad taste in my mouth, seeing the slick, flashy, big-budget ‘re-imagining’ of an edgy, quirky, rough-around-the-edges, but very original story-setting.

I don’t think I want a heartless, soulless, ripped-off RepoMen when I can have a top-of-the-line GeneCo original. *wink*

For those who like that sort of pablum, eh. You can have it. I’ll suggest you watch TGO, but everyone involved with that project -knew- it would never be mainstream, that viewers would love it or hate it, with very little middle ground… I don’t think it would have the following it does now if it hadn’t been so uncompromising.

As director Darren Lynn Bousman urged on his website today, I will respect people’s right to see and enjoy what they wish, and simply hold the hope that it will open a door for more people to learn of and fall in love with REPO! The Genetic Opera. And I will continue to Repo-vangelize. TESTIFY!

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deadjack
15 years ago

Also, Larry Niven did it a long, long time ago as someone else pointed out on another site in his GIL Hamilton shorts/novels…

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George_85
15 years ago

Guys! You should rate the movie before it comes out this Friday! There’s this quick rating survey you can fill out… Here’s the link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S5GGG9T

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Andrew Wheeler
15 years ago

Just to reiterate what several people have already said:

You severely buried your lead, there: ideas are not protectable intellectual property; only the specific expressions of those ideas can become the basis for a copyright or trademark.

Neither one of these movies invented the idea of selling and repossessing organs; that’s been around in written SF for at least two generations and has been used in several other media by many people. REPO! is just as derivative as REPO MEN is, and just as dependent on prior art.

You seem to be advocating that the first big media expression of an idea should “own” all future manifestations of that idea, which is not only horribly Hollywood-centric, but also would be a massive extension of intellectual property rights in an era already burdened by endless IP rights. Why not call for Larry Niven to sue both movies? — it would at least be slightly more intellectually honest.

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Emm Are Emm
15 years ago

Yes it’s not rare for concepts to be reimagined and reworked, but all of those examples listed there has been a significant amount of time between them and didn’t have the Hollywood giant stomping the small quirky film aspect. If Repo Man was coming out 5 years from now it probably wouldn’t be as big a deal but it’s coming out 2 years after Repo! struggled to find an audience and Darren and Terrance had to do all the hard work themselves and it’s coming out with tons of backing and media and doesn’t even acknowledge the similar smaller film. That makes fans bitter. Time and a little acknowledgment rather than blatant deny deny deny would have gone a long way in smoothing things over.

15 years ago

I’m confused on why everyone wants the big movie to acknowledge the small one. When would that happen in real life?

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AvsChic23
15 years ago

I just want to throw this out there: the original creations that the movies are based on (a book for Repo Men, and a play for Repo!) were written independently about the same time. The book is just now being published (because of the movie) and Repo! came out because the play was so successful.

http://openbooksociety.com/article/repo-men-repo-genetic-opera/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo_the_genetic_opera#Production_and_history

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo_Men#Production

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spiderpig2012
15 years ago

nooooooo… how they can remake this movie! its not at all going to be the same… this really irks me >:(. repo:the genetic opera was a GREAT movie…and the other ones not even a musical! grrrrr!

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xxscrumxx
15 years ago

I think that not only Repo! and Repo Men have the same idea but, as people have shown, there were other stories with similar concepts. But it’s not just the storyline about organs being repossessed that people are up in arms about there is a little more too it that than. Because in Hollywood there is no such thing as a original idea anymore, if you thought of it chances are someone else did too, that happens but I think this is different. For example, in Repo! they have a drug called Zydrate that takes away the pain of surgery, in Repo Men they have a little red pill (or something along those lines)that does the same. And I heard that in Repo Men one of the character’s wife dies/died… just like in Repo! Plus (now correct me if I am wrong) in the commercial for Repo Men they have a girl on a big screen tv who is advertising the whole organ thing, which is the same in Repo! I know my examples are vague and those are the only particular ones I know of(cause I haven’t seen Reo Men yet) but they still show that it’s not simply the main idea taken but there are subtle little similarities that I doubt the creator of Repo Men thought up just like the creators of Repo! thought up.

I personally find this to be a great injustice. It’s really unfair and I feel badly for the creators of Repo! They created something (which in my mind) was unique and just..well awesome. And it gets ripped off and people are going to give Repo Men credit and probably like it better which will lead to bashing of Repo! and accusations that it copied Repo Men. In my opinion they should be allowed to sue.

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ms_danger_boy
15 years ago

If you don’t think this is a rip off, you’re just wrong. Pull up your chairs, kids, and I’ll explain myself.

“Oh but it’s a different genre and plot except for the main central concept”… See More

Yeah, I know. So here’s what happened:

Repo! producers: Hey, do you want to make this super cool stylized film that we’ve been pouring our souls into for years?

Universal: Ummm… we don’t really want to make art. Time is a-wasting while we could be cranking out another cookie-cutter block buster.

Repo! fans: Hey, we like art! We like it a lot!

Universal: On second thought, I smell a demographic here! Let’s scoop up some of that look, feel and gore and plaster it all over one of our terrible movies… the audience is too stupid to really know the difference. They’ll pretty much watch anything. It’s just the brand that’s important here, so make sure the title is similar enough to confuse some of the dullards into thinking it’s a remake or sequel or something.

Repo! fans: Why must you feed me this giant bag of sadface?

Universal: Because it pays the bills. Enjoy the epic suck, losers.

FIN.

In conclusion, I will not be seeing this movie because:

1) I loved Repo!
2) Because I’m not the demographic-following sheep Universal would like me to be
3) (Most importantly) Because the movie is going to be really, incredibly bad.

Just an aside, has anyone else noticed Forrest Whitaker will act in any g-ddamned awful thing these days? Dude! What happened? I used to love that guy. Shame.

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the fiend
15 years ago

seriously?

you sound like the people who complained about “the wolf man” because it didn’t adhere to stephanie meyers’ vision of what werewolves should be like.

what next? percy jackson gets sued by the makers of xanadu, because they had the concept of greek gods still influencing the lives of mortals, first? the estate of einstein and rosenberg sue the makers of sliders and any other parallel world story?

a tip of the hat to mikecarusocrg for mentioning monty python….

just like the public domain of the concept of men in black means that you can have any film with men in black and the makers of men in black cannot sue, as long as you don’t have the same characters(alphabet designations)/setting(as in the base, not the city itself…)/sequence of events, repo men, as a concept, remain in the public domain and tweaking them so they repossess organs, time, colour, or memories remains just as much open for interpretation by the individual author.

look at some of the case histories out there for what does breech copywrite.

sucessful – hardware vs shok!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_%281990_film%29#Shok.21

unsucessful – holy blood, holy grail vs dan brown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code#Inspiration_and_influences

the fiend
a concept since before conception.

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Harlequin_Eyes
15 years ago

I am a Repo!TGO fan and have been reading into this little “controversy” for a while now. None of us will ever really know whether or not Garcia/Universal took their concepts from Repo!, though I admit there are a lot of similarities between to two according to what I’ve read online (I’ve yet to get my hands on a copy of “Repossession Mambo” but I’d like to read it eventually for comparison’s sake).
The thing that makes me sad is that regardless of whether or not the “Repo Men” story is truly original, it’s going to get more press and popularity than Repo! has and they worked so hard on bringing that story to life. It sucks to know that you came up with this awesome idea and nurtured it into this magnificent thing and then another story comes along that’s similar and they get the spotlight over you. Whether or not the story was “borrowed” or truly dreamed up its own, it still sucks.
I will not be seeing “Repo Men” when it comes out in theatres, not because I’m a rabid Repo!TGO fan and not because I think it was plagiarized without having all the facts; I’ve seen the trailer and it simply doesn’t look like a movie I’d enjoy. I’m kind of an off-beat eclectic type and that’s why Repo! appealed to me, it’s a “black sheep” in its own way and I dig that funky kind of stuff. I don’t wish “Repo Men” any bad will, but I do hope that those people who have an interest in it somehow find their way to Repo!TGO, if not for any other reason than to give it a little taste of the spotlight, too.

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WorksinCA
15 years ago

The thing that should outrage people is that the person who came up with the story and concept that has been ripped off is not getting payed for it at all. This new film is going to make millions and not a cent of that is going to go to Terrence and D , who gave them the idea to do this. Universal was in talks with Terrence and D for months about making there film Repo. After these talks and almost putting down contracts they came to a point of creative differences and Universal said they would not make the film unless they agreed to drop the song part . Universal loved the story but wanted them to drop the music, (in Hollywood they do not think Musicals make money unless it is a cartoon). Since Terrence and D would not drop the music, Universal put a stop on the paper work and told them good day. Then a year goes by and its in the papers that a film called “Reop Mamba” has gotten green light by Universal . It is a rip off and what makes it so horrible is that the ones they got the idea from, where in contract talks to make there film will never see a penny from any of it. So they got to do all the work and never get payed and on top of this now have people telling them there fibbing. To keep there jobs going in the business they can not say too much.
Nether of the creators of Reop the genetic opera can scream bloody murder about getting ripped off as badly as they just have or not getting payed because think about it, they both still work in Hollywood. If they publicly put out whats really happen here, it could get them both blacklisted and out of work for years. There not big enough stars to stand up to a mega studio like Universal. Besides they cant sue Universal as it is Lions Gate who owns the rights to the film, they would have to be the ones to sue over this and I do not foresee that happening as compared to Universal there also small and It could and would hurt there work in the industry.
So its really a case of the bigger fish winning because any one who could do something is not as big as them or has the money to fight as long as they would have to. They knew that, that is why they did it. Do you know how many lawyers Universals have on there payroll? More then some hospital have DRs.

The artist once more suffers under payed and ripped off.

Liken to Tesla getting ripped off by Edison

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Cait Brown
15 years ago

repo men should be confronted with copyright infringement charges. You don’t steal art to make a crappy c-rated action film. I’m NOT a fan of the idea REPO! The Genetic Opera is an instant cult classic. I didn’t even know creativity existed like that anymore and apparently it doesn’t hollywood’s got to steal another good idea and make it seem like another recycled movie.

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Midath
15 years ago

It is a pity that the creators of Repo The Genetic Opera are not going to be compensated in any way. The idea and the concept were shown in REPO first. Certainly it is a fact that an idea cannot be copywrited or protected but Repomen should at least aknowledge that their idea has been stolen from Zdunich and Smith. I do not plan on seeing Repomen as I do not want to support a film that so blatently ripped another film off and then tries ton excuse it by saying it is from a book. Perhaps it is, but REPO didit first and that should at least be mentioned. Pity Hollywood has to steal it’s ideas now instead of coming up with new ones.

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bishop
11 years ago

the thing that bothered me the most was jude law on late night TV proclaming that repo men was a compleatly original concept that the film maker came up with on his own because he is a “genius” when asked where the idea of the story came from