Repo Men Motion Comic Debuts Online

Comments (59)

1. StonerGuy: I don’t think that a film– which is still in theaters nearing a year and a half after its release, with shadowcasts all over the world routinely putting on shows alongside the film and inspired by the film, with fans DRESSING UP as the characters on a regular basis– can be considered a “struggling, mostly-forgotten little film”.

   Most Repo! fans are not overly concerned with the blatant similarities between the two films, we are merely trying to point out the facts that otherwise would have never been revealed to the general public. and true, no one will go to court, because, legally, unless an EXACT line were used it is not considered plagiarism; however, just because you can do something legally does not mean that it is RIGHT. But, again, we’re not really that concerned.
   We know our “little film” will live on, whereas Repo Men will be out of people’s memories before it even leaves theaters.

2. Just a question: Where are all you Repo! fans coming from? I think it’s great that you’re voicing your opinions, by the way. Has Universal commented on this matter at all?

   Also check out this article: https://movieviral.com/2010/02/28/repo-vs-repo/

3. What a cheap shot. What a pathetic cheap shot.

4. Nick: The only thing Universal will say is that it has nothing to do with Repo! and the novel was made when Garcia is claiming it to be made, which has no concrete evidence besides word of mouth.

   Repo! fans are a close knit community, consisting of thousands of fans with many more that join each day. Word just gets around very quickly, and when it comes to voicing our opinions, we tend not to stay quiet. xD

   Thank you for the link, by the way.

5. Nick: We have been keeping track of Repo Men press. 🙂

6. I’m seeing if I can get further comment from Universal on this subject. From what I’ve heard, the beginnings of each projects was around the same time (Repo! was a year earlier) but when Repo Men was being worked on (the foundation, at least) no Repo! information was available. We’ll see if Universal responds.

7. So the fact that Eric Garcia mentions Repossession Mambo in a 2001 interview and all of the documented proof of his early 90’s short story “The Tell-Tale Pancreas” makes…no never mind to anyone?

8. This is complete and utter ridiculous crap. I can’t believe, after all the other things they’ve taken from Repo! Opera, they would sink so low as to make comics a big part of their movie now. It was bad enough before they changed the name of the movie to “Repo Men” from “Repossession Mambo” and gave it a barcode logo. At this rate, I will not be surprised when they inevitably announce they’re doing some reshoots so they can add the new character they just wrote in, their charming, creepy, omnipresent narrator, CryptPilferer.

9. Oops, I ought to have said “late 90’s”- like ’97. Not early 90’s. ^_^

10. OperaPhantomess, where on earth has it been confirmed that “even the author and script writer of Repo Men received his ideas from the stage production itself as the Repo! crew would see him and other Universal people in the audience taking notes”? I mean, other than word of mouth, which obviously isn’t good enough for Eric Garcia and yet is perfectly fine for Bousman and Zdunich?

    Universal didn’t suddenly jump on the idea of making a “songless version” of Repo! The Genetic Opera. It took Jude Law hooking up with the creators of Repossession Mambo sometime in 2006 for Universal to even take the idea seriously. I won’t even get into the fact that Garcia and Lerner had been trying to get their script noticed since 2003-2004…

11. oh man…comic book? bar code? repossessing organs? but…no music. the characters in OUR Repo, are epic. let’s not forget that OUR Repo, is not a stupid action movie. OUR Repo has an amazing soundtrack. Our Repo does not appeal to everyone, only those of us that get it. I love that about it!
    If Universal wants to embarrass itself by releasing a movie with soooooooo many blatant “similarities”, let them. Organ repossessions must be the thing to imitate, but it’s not our Repo without GraveRobber, Pavi!! Luigi, Blind Mag, Shilo, Rotti Largo, and of course Nathan as our true Repo Man. Poor Jude Law…he just does not compare. Imagine that!

12. If you are referring to the documented proof of the “Tell-Tale Pancreas” existing as Eric Garcia’s article from “Ain’t it Cool News,” that is hardly concrete proof. This short story was never published. Despite all the controversy, Garcia has not yet brought this short story out for public consumption. I would LOVE to see this story, I honestly would. There is no sarcasm in that statement. I think many Repo! fans would applaud him for finally stepping forward and showing it. But he has not. The best he has is to say, “I wrote this short story. I showed it to one person in 1997.” And that’s it. As Terrance Zdunich so eloquently put in his blog, just because a story isn’t published doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I agree with this. But why, when your movie (Repo Men) is surrounded in controversy and all you would have to do is provided some sort of concrete physical and dated proof you had a short story…. why wouldn’t you? The creators of Repo! the Genetic Opera have provided the public with playbills, CDs, videos of early performances, etc to prove beyond a doubt that Repo! has a long standing and very well documented history. That is hardly “word of mouth” from Bousman, et al.

    Again, it isn’t the similarities in story. I don’t blame Eric Garcia in the slightest. I don’t know, other than hearing from other Repo! fans, whether Garcia was an audience member at Repo! stageplays or not (even Zdunich has stated somewhere he heard this rumor, but can’t confirm or deny it). He did or didn’t steal an idea. Ideas cannot be copyrighted. We’ve already established this over and over. So as Niebbly pointed out, just because it is legal to steal an idea doesn’t necessarily make it ethical. Artists stealing from other artists is a terrible thing. It doesn’t matter if Garcia did or not. If he did, it wasn’t illegal, but he should be ashamed of himself. If he didn’t… well, then this all really is a case of two groups of people coming up with a similar idea at exactly the same time. Seems extremely coincidental, but hey, I guess it can happen.

    But the worst “crime” of all, once again, is Universal’s underhanded marketing techniques, which many of us have already elaborated on. And I am sure Eric Garcia has absolutely nothing to do with Repo Men’s marketing team. Often in Hollywood, a writer hasn’t much say at all in what happens to a film, especially not its advertising campaign. So, most of the shame in the Repo! vs. Repo Men is on them– the huge corporation, Universal.

    As far as being able to do more productive things with our time– what is more productive than standing up for something when there is an injustice being done? Fighting for the creative rights of an artist is extremely important… it’s one of the reasons why downloading music illegally is a crime– you simply cannot steal and should not steal someone else’s creative property. Unfortunately, those laws only exist for a handful of artistic endeavors.

    I, for one, am sick and tired of companies like Universal being able to thrust whatever they want upon us. They have the money, so they can control what you see online, on your TVs, in the movie theatres, etc. This isn’t a conspiracy theatre, it is common truth. They can afford to put whatever they want out into the world, whereas little films like Repo! don’t have the money or film studio support to do such things. What a film like Repo! has (and many other indie films have) is loyal fan bases who fight to show the world and larger studios that our opinions matter too. That we’re not so stupid as to fall for the crap they try to pull on us. So, we can all sit here and nod our heads and drool over the shiny packaging that ‘Repo Men’ has, or we can speak up and let the public know that that packaging is stolen from another film. After that, the public can make up its own minds about which film they want to see and support. The point is, the whole truth should be given, not just the truth the “money” wants you to see.

    And in the end, as Niebbly also pointed out, Repo! the Genetic Opera is still playing in theatres EVERY SINGLE WEEK somewhere in the world. In fact, this Friday to coincide with the release of Repo Men, the Genetic Opera is screening in theatres all over the world; it is actually screening in more theatres this Friday than what it originally opened and played in back in 2008! And it wasn’t the studio that got this to happen, it was the dedicated fans who speak their minds and demanded that Repo! stay in theatres. I can only think of a few other films that can make that claim. One is Rocky Horror. The other may be The Room. And Repo! Will Repo Men be able to say that in a year? Will Repo Men still even be playing in theatres in three months? It is unlikely.

13. Repo! has and had it’s chance to make it’s mark. Yes, it still exists and will continue to exist to it’s devoted fans, but Repossession Mambo (Repo Men) is going to open regardless and make lots more money. Hell, working in middle management for a year at some company will make more money than Repo! did. It wasn’t a box office hit. Fact.

    How could you be upset that Universal is marketing it and making comics when Repo! has whatever same opportunity to market and distribute its film too. Underhanded marketing techniques? You’d be thrilled if Lions Gate did those “underhanded marketing techniques” with Repo!
    REALLY? You’re upset that Universal has tons of money to thrust upon you whatever they want??? Aren’t you in any control of your own life? You don’t have to watch TV, see the ads, or pay attention to whatever you don’t want to. That’s just pathetic. (Oh, the mean film studio made me see it…) Lame.

    So what if there are similarities? This won’t be the last you hear about organ replacement. Get over it and stop crying about it. If there was a true legal case ( and yes, those laws DO exist in filmmaking) then there would be a lawsuit. The reality of it is there isn’t enough proof that plagiarism exists even if Spooky Dan says so. Only in the age of the internet would people believe a guy who calls himself “Spooky Dan”… but people obviously believe what they want, regardless of the facts or proof.

    The fact is, people know about Repo! and many choose not to see it because it isn’t meant to appeal to a wider audience. Paris Hilton doesn’t have the greatest track record, nor is she box office gold. Revel in the fact that you’re amongst a unique few. Maybe it will continue on as this generations Rocky Horror. If that becomes so, then don’t diminish the work that has been done by crapping all over another work to get there.

    Let the two films do their thing. Repo! fans are upset because Repo Men is going to be a hit and make lots of money. Lions Gate had the same opportunity to do that with Repo! and they didn’t. They promoted the crap out of the Saw movies, so it’s not like they don’t know what they’re doing. They just know what they have, and that’s that.

14. R!tGO and Repo Men are two completely different films. If you take the “repossessing organs” and “big company chasing little employee” concepts out (both of which have been circulated in the sci-fi genre for decades), these movies have almost nothing to do with each other.

    R!tGO is, first and foremost, an opera, a character-driven story of a man torn between his split personality. His job as a Repo Man is sidelined by the relationships he holds with his daughter, his boss/ex-rival, his dead wife’s best friend, the people he must kill, and the darkness within himself. In this movie, the repossessing of organs is entirely secondary to the characters.

    Repo Men, based on Eric Garcia’s novel “Repossession Mambo” (which he clearly mentions in a 2001 interview) an action story with one clear protagonist instead of an ensemble cast, unlike R!tGO. It is an action-based plot, and the characters are secondary to the events that lead up to his present day running from his employers. If anything, it shares more with Equilibrium than any moment in R!tGO.

    Furthermore, the styles are completely different. Repo Men is a sterile movie, without the warmth or the chaos of several characters all having their time in the spotlight like R!tGO. Any GraveRobbers or narrators besides the main guy in Repossession Mambo? Nope. Were there loud and proud fight sequences in R!tGO? Unless you count Nathan beating a couple of guys up in two seconds near the end of the movie, no. Does Remy keep his son locked in a tower in Repo Men? No. Is Nathan really estranged from his daughter like Remy is from his son? No. Is there a mafia-type head guy in Repo Men, like Rotti? Absolutely not, and Nathan has no best friends in R!tGO the way that Remy does. This list could go on for hours.

    Spooky Dan’s “similarities” were badly presented, and most of them were stretching almost to the point of being ridiculous- one of the first ones was the fact that both movies use the phrase “fine print”. Really?

    So many R!tGO fans are complaining about how Terrance and Darren Lynn Bousman worked so hard and so long on their play and their movie and their songs and getting their shot from a real movie studio like Lionsgate. And all of their hard work was just “stolen”. As mentioned before, with a couple of exceptions for concepts that have already been around for years, the two movies are completely dissimilar.

    Lionsgate is a big enough studio that it knows what it’s doing. Instead of pointing angry fingers at Universal, why not try pointing fingers at Lionsgate for not having enough faith in it to promote it more heavily? Also, R!tGO was not an indie film. It was backed by a major studio (Lionsgate made tons of money last year) and given a lot more than a couple of thousand dollars for a budget.

    And what underhanded marketing techniques? It used a viral marketing campaign that was absolutely brilliant, sending people across the country as runners and seekers. R!tGO was mostly word-of-mouth. With the rise of interest in comic books again, it seems only fitting that Universal’s marketing team would elect to have a backstory done in comic style. (If you want to, try blaming Joss Whedon for this- he did quite well making Buffy’s Season 8 into a comic). Neither R!tGO or Repo Men is particularly original here.

    As for the posters, a great deal of them don’t look anything like Repo Men’s posters. If you really want to argue, look into the basic psychology of marketing. You put an object or a logo in the center, where you want peoples’ eyes to travel to first. It would have been a problem if R!tGO’s logo looked really similar to Repo Men. But it doesn’t. In fact, Repo Men’s logo and tagline look eerily akin to FedEx’s logo. Two colors, plain font, little tiny tagline/website underneath on the right hand side. Try telling FedEx that Repo Men ripped them off instead. The body posters for R!tGO are dark and full of distracting things to look at, very much like R!tGO itself. Repo Men’s posters are done in stark white and light blues and greys with some blacks thrown in. Again, sterile, like Repo Men. Both have organs, but objectively speaking, the hand-drawn quality of R!tGO’s posters look nothing like the simple x-rays of Repo Men. Of course they’re going to use hearts and lungs and livers. There would be no story if Jude Law was repossessing fingers from piano players.

    It’s also shameful that so many R!tGO fans simply jumped on the bandwagon without making the attempt at properly researching the situation. The Repo Men facebook page blew up a couple of weeks ago with people cussing and posting the exact same sentences over and over again automatically, without posting anything of real substance. *please note that this comment is not for people who have attempted to come to some logical conclusion about the matter* Another thing- it’s difficult to take all of the plagiarism accusations seriously when R!tGO’s own website touts the movie as “Blade Runner meets Rocky Horror”.

    It is interesting to note that there are tons of blogs and interviews and questions and answers from TZ and DLB, being angry and upset over this whole thing. Eric Garcia and Miguel have kept quiet. Some may see it as some sort of admittance of guilt. However, is this guilt, or simply maturity?

    It’s very sad to see that few if any people are speaking up on behalf of Eric Garcia. The man was just nominated for a Philip K. Dick award (the masters of science fiction apparently don’t believe he plagiarized anything), and ought to be enjoying the fruits of his labor instead of only trying to ignore the hordes of rabid fans screaming plagiarism at him. He also worked long and hard on this novel, being a writer by profession. Would he really have wasted precious time plagiarizing someone else’s material? (Yes, people bigger than R!tGO’s fans would have noticed.) Getting sued would mean less, if any, food on his table, as, again, he does this for a living.

    Repossession Mambo was his baby, and everybody else’s who jumped onboard with him. It took years and hundred of steps (as it usually does) for the transition of this novel to the big screen, and presumably a lot of blood and sweat and tears. He put his heart into this project, first writing the novel and then attempting to get it made into a movie (no pun intended), and yet people are worried only about TZ and DLB getting credit for their work.

    Having passion for R!tGO is great and fine- many props to the fans’ dedication. But it would be really cool if they could put their R!tGO egos aside and watch Repo Men or read Repossession Mambo before making accusations instead of automatically villainizing everything and everyone associated with Repo Man.

    Congrats to Eric Garcia!

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