I have seen neither film, but the synopsis to the new "Repo Men" starring Jude Law sounds awfully familiar. If I don't see any discussion from the producers of the latter on their "inspirations", I am smelling rip off.
sharethere is a connection - it's completely ripping off repo!. danny lynn housman briefly touched on it in the commentary on the repo! dvd but i'm pretty sure they don't want to talk about it. there was a whole thing on the message board too. the fans are getting kind of ugly.
shareBoth movies were actual edited across the hall from each other. There's supposed to be some reason why they can't sue, but I don't remember what it was. They even found proof that the guy that wrote "Repo Men" saw the original Repo stage show.
In the most delicious way....
-Arrested Development
According to Terrance Zdunich, the reason nobody is suing, is because general creative ideas aren't copyrighted. Unless "Repo Men" uses the exact same dialog, characters etc. they are actually pretty free to imitate the idea. Also the fact that they'd be crazy to sue Universal. And he says he wouldn't even if he could...good attitude I guess. Sounds like it's only the dedicated fans that care either way.
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Years late, but intellectual property is what that is called. Sad truth.
shareMy husband showed me the trailer for "Repo Men" the other day and we both agreed that the storylines are quite similar to a point. I will give "Repo Men" a chance, but I just think it is kinda taking way to many liberites from "Repo!"
I would also avoid the "Repo Men" board if I were you its kinda scary over there with the fanboys from both movies.
Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.
Heh, "Repo Men" is based on a novel called "Reposession Mambo" which was based on a short story written LONG before the 'Repo' stage show was ever conceived, so it's actually 'the Genetic Opera' that ripped off the idea.
shareThat book was just published last year and the musical was around since 1999.
If you can provide the title and author of the short story, I'd be inclined to believe you.
Alice Army
You've Got A Very Important Date
March 05, 2010
After being bored as hell and decided to do some research and set the record straight.here are the dates for the book, the play (not short story that the book is based off of) and when Repo! was first presented on stage.
Repo! The Genetic Opera aka The Necromacer's Debt - Written in 1999, made it to the stage in 1999, for 2 yrs did small 10 minute shows. 2002 became Repo! and did at least 3 successful Off-Broadway runs until being made into a film in early 2007.
Reposession Mambo - published in early 2009
Harvest (the play Reposession Mambo is based on) - wrote the play in 1996, didn't make it to the stage until mid-1998 in India, it didn't make US stage premier til 2006. Bookform of play published in 2003, but limited to UK.
I read the book Harvest and Reposession Mambo along with being a fan of Repo! I can say that Harvest is nothing like either Repo! or Repomen. Harvest is more similiar to the movie "The Island", but without the clones.
Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.
HARVEST by Manjula Padamanabhan. Here's a link http://www.india-today.com/itoday/27041998/books2.html
shareI reply with what the user before you said.
Alice Army
You've Got A Very Important Date
March 05, 2010
However you choose to reply, the story of Harvest came long before Repo, so you can believe what you want, but facts are facts.
shareTrue the play came before Repo!, but it didn't even become known in the US until 2006, it was a little play in India. And if you actually read the book based on the play (which is written by the author of the play) you would notice that the play has barely any reference toward Repo! or Repossession Mambo storylines. It has more of "The Island" feel to it without the clones and a rip off of the Python sketch, which was out way before this play was written.
Harvest is about people in INDIA selling their organs to high paying clients in the US throught a corporation and when its time for their organs to be "harvested" men come and take you to a facility to have them removed. Repo! and Repossession Mambo/RepoMen are about people getting organs from a big name corporation and if you don't pay for those debts you are hunted down killed and said organs removed.
I personelly don't think Harvest was what "inspired" RepoMen, I think the writer is using that play as an excuse to cover his tracks since they have a movie that has the almost exact background story as another movie/play that was released and has a huge cult following and didn't want to get his ass sued by the makers of Repo! for plagerism, but that is just my opinion.
Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.
Just want to say that there is a danish short story, (in the three short story collection "måske"), which is about organ repossesion legelazation, which was published in 1994. So the idea came out before any of those, I think.
shareYeah, and the facts were well portrayed in a previous message, you're just taking them out of context.
shareThe author of the Repossession Mambo actually says he based the book off of a short story HE wrote in 1997... So what's that about facts?...
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/43628
He can say anything he wants, but no one has presented any evidence whatsoever that this is true, the only "evidence" that the writer has given is his word.
The best part of waking up is dead fetus in your cup
Oh trust me, I'm right there with you. The facts surrounding the existence or nonexistence of Garcia's story in this case are incredibly vague and sometimes completely contrary to each other... and there's no published story to back up that particular claim. (In fact, the publication dates for "The Repossession Mambo" have changed twice in the last few months according to sources I've been tracking)
It's just a fact that he's claiming that. ;)
I don't know if this actually a rip off but I do know that no legal action can be taken, according to Zdunich. So that means they can't be too similar, but the premise for both movies is pretty much the same. I don't know exactly what happens in Repo Men but in Repo! The Genetic Opera the film focuses less on the actual repossessions from GeneCo and more on Shiloh and Rotti Largo and this extensive past revolving around Marni.
Although I know both films are different I still thinks it's unfair. A large amount of people are still blind to this movie and I think that it needs to be known that Repo! was here first.
And as for Harvest, I haven't read it so I cannot say for sure but with Shey description of it I think they're right. It doesn't sound like Repo Men was based off it. It sound more like they share a common thought than anything.
I'm addicted to smileys
Hey, there's this new thing called, "similar ideas".
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PAVI! SHUT THE *beep* UP!
So long as it doesn't have a bunch of "songs" with barely any actual rhymes or cohesion written up by some Hot Topic emo kid who worships Avril (Shilo) and Evanescence (Blind Mag), I will go see Eric Garcia's "Repo Men." Maybe it will actually be good. And like the other dude said, a plot/setting/idea can't really be copyrighted. Bousman couldn't sue Garcia over "Repo Men" anymore than the makers of "Battle for Terra" could sue James Cameron over "Avatar." They can bitch and complain about being copied, but in the end nobody really gives a sh-t except the fans.
share"Battle for Terra" could sue James Cameron over "Avatar."
"They can bitch and complain about being copied, but in the end nobody really gives a sh-t except the fans."
...aren't they the ones that truly matter?... And if they're not, then what's the bloody point of it all to begin with? So much for art...
I saw the trailer and read both Terrence Zdunich and Darren Lynn Bousman's blogs on the subject.
I think that Repo! will continue to stand out above this other movie because both of the aforementioned gentlemen truly care about and support the fans of the movie. This other movie won't be playing a year after its release in theaters, there will be no Shadow Casts for it, and Jude Law isn't going to be posting personal responses to myspace requests or taking the time to send personal responses to fan letters. Terrence Zdunich has done both for me and many of my friends who love Repo!
A similiar movie won't detract from this one, at least for me. This isn't a movie, it's a fan experience.
Barb
I thought from the first time I heard about Repo Men that it was a rip off of Repo but with a bigger budget. I won't be seeing Repo Men as it blatantly rips off Repo! The Genetic Opera, and won't come anywhere close to the genius that was Repo!.
shareLike the OP, I haven't seen either film, but I immediately recognized the similarities when I saw the new "Repo Men" trailer. After poking around online I found this interview/blog entry that I thought answered the allegations pretty well. Go to this site and do a search for "the telltale pancreas" on the page to find the entry.
http://www.aintitcool.com/?q=node/43628
"The Telltale Pancreas" is the short story that Garcia's "Repossession Mambo" was based off of. It was written in 1997, four years before the first public performance of REPO!, according to the site.
The bottom line is that they are two independently developed ideas that are, by coincidence, very similar. Even if foul play was involved, the two movies will be so different (one a rock opera cult classic, the other a blockbuster action movie) that it doesn't really matter.
Finally saw REpo! an loved it. but after having seen it my views on the similarities kind fo changed a bit. YEs they have similar promotional materials and all, plus the whole repo of organs aspect. However, Repo Men seems to be an action type film focused more on the repossesing of organs and one of the repo men getting an organ and defaulting on it.
Where as Repo! is more a drama type story about a man trying to get revenge on someone else for stealing the girl he loved from him. The whole organ situation and repossesion is more of a backdrop for the story than the focus of the story itself. You could take out that aspect from Repo! and still keep the same basic story. Repo Men however hinges on it.
Principal Skinner: I finally have time to do the thing I've always wanted...write the great American novel. Mine is about a furturistic theme park where dinosaurs are bought to live by advanced cloning techniques. I call it "Billy and the Clone-O-Saurus"
sharehaha Jedi G-Prime I was totally thinking about that the other day.
In the most delicious way....
-Arrested Development
I really enjoyed Repo men and I would love to see repo!
who cares what people think of either film if they're both fun to watch?
Considering there is no source for this short story that Garcia wrote, all we can take this for is a statement in order to cover up his tracks... additionally, in the "Repossession Mambo" novel, after the story, there is an authors note about the history of the idea, he claims to have had the idea as far back as 1997, however he never mentions "The Telltale Pancreas," he just states that he began working on the novel in 97, it was picked up by Universal, he wrote the script, then he went back and finally finished the novel. This time line is a little choppy, and there seem to be several different versions of his story came into being... I have read the novel, and I enjoyed it for the most part... it was more like movies such as "Total Recall" and "Blade Runner" then "Repo: The Genetic Opera," it really is just the basic idea that was ripped off... I have yet to see the movie, however I have heard there are more similarities in the movie then the novel.
Extra note that has not been mentioned yet... before being picked up by Lionsgate, the writers of "Repo: The Genetic Opera" tried to have the movie produced by Universal Studios (who ended up producing "Repo Men"), and they told Terrance Zdunich and Darren Smith, that they wanted to make the movie, but without the music, which forced TZ and DS to pass and continue the hunt for producers. by the time Lionsgate agreed to fund the movie, Universal had also began working on "Repo Men," interesting coincidence if you ask me.
Considering there is no source for this short story that Garcia wrote, all we can take this for is a statement in order to cover up his tracks...
But if the producers were to find themselves in a court of law saying "Well... He told me he wrote it in '97...." what do you think the judge would say?
The best part of waking up is dead fetus in your cup
The judge would say that if there is no license in the copyright office then it does not matter what he claims.
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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.
i saw both movies there is a minor connection repo is set around the characters while Repo men is set just around the one character (Jude law) so actually just the fact that they both involve repossession of organs is the only connection. other wise they are 2 totally different story lines. In repo men the organs are so fake yet in Repo they at least look real and most likely are. but this is just my view others might think otherwise.
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