Interview: Terrance Zdunich
A few days after Repo! A Genetic Opera opened; I had the chance to talk with Terrance Zdunich, the co-creator and screenwriter of the film. He also plays the Grave Robber in the film, so I was eager to chat it up with him and find out more about Repo! A Genetic Opera.
 Jon: I want to get back to 1999 where Repo! originated with you and Darren Smith. Where did the idea come up for Repo! A Genetic Opera?
Terrance Zdunich: Oh, it has been a long journey of adaptations for Repo! and the story, it’s sort of fuzzy where the initial germ of the idea sprouted. To the best I can sum it up, Darren Smith and I met each other around 1998, maybe it was 1997 when we first met and we were sort of reformed musicians for the lack of a better word, and we were really into the idea of doing something new and that involved music. We came up with this idea called 10-minute operas, like ten minute short stories with music. One of those ten minute stories was about a futuristic graverobber that kind of grew into Repo! that now exists as a film.
Where did that come from? I not entirely sure. (laughs) I was really big on the macabre and horror aspects and I was toiling away with this graverobber character and it was almost like a Victorian melodrama. Darren Smith wisely said, “Well, that’s cool but I’ve seen that a million times so let’s do it not in the past but the future and it grew out from there. We had a friend who was going through some bankruptcy problems (laughs) and was in danger of getting his things repossessed. So it just kind of clicked and we thought maybe one of the things he sees is this Repo Man and he’s out there collecting body parts. It just kept growing and growing from there.
Jon: In 2002, you guys met Darren Bousman. How was the play doing and what was that fateful meeting with Bousman like?
Terrance: Well, prior to what we met Darren for, Repo! was just coming from a two man thing with Darren Smith and I, coming from an opera and then we starting just expanding the story since that was what the audiences were coming for. They seemed to respond to that story the most, they thought it was cool and so did we. So we started like 45 minutes sets and rock clubs and it wasn’t a full opera yet just and we met Darren Bousman when Darren Smith and I decided to make the leap to stage Repo! as a full stage play, to rent a theatre, to hire set builders, to hire a costume person, you know, a full cast trying to make it into a show, and we needed a director.
We, Darren Smith and I, interviewed several people and met Darren Bousman, who was relatively fresh out of film school and was in L.A. for less than two years. He was doing what we all do, taking bullshit jobs and wanted to direct movies. He wanted to direct a musical movie of all things and which is how we met. We knew he was all about a rock opera and he loved Jesus Christ Superstar, Tommy, and we thought, you know, people say anything when they want a job. “Oh, you’re directing a rock opera? I love those things!” was what we were expecting. When we met him, it was painfully obvious this guy was the real deal; he knew every word to every fucking song! (laughs) We did it and we all became friends, as we were figuring out how to do it. We didn’t know what we doing, trying to direct a stage play and one at that that was as complicated as Repo! We weren’t shooting small, we were shooting big, you know, an opera, blood, and we didn’t have any money or any real training. We just did it as we went and as such a bond was formed. The theatre we did it at got great receptions, sold out shows, and it really felt like we were doing the right thing.
It felt like “Wow, we’re onto something”, at the very least it was one of those moments of creation that was like, I don’t know, just put everything into perceptive. It was like this was what I want to be doing and something was magical about the whole experience and we sought to recreate it and we did so in another stage version of Repo! in 2004. There was an Off-Off Broadway run in 2005 in New York and then in 2006 we filmed the 10 minute short to convince and get some financing. We had to secure financing for the movie which was shot in 2007.
Jon: Were you ever surprised or apprehensive about Bousman’s casting choices?
Terrance: Well, you know, because Repo! is such its own thing…did you see it?
Jon: No, not yet, I hope so soon. My friend flew into Austin to see it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m really excited.
Terrance: Oh, wow! (laughs) We’re really excited too! It’s been a long road coming and I’ll answer your question in a sec, but we had our opening Friday and it’s been a crazy road, the whole way, going all the way back to the stage play. Here we are now and it’s our opening weekend and every step of the way fighting, and in most cases beating the odds. How improbably is it to even get the movie made? Unless you’re a Coppola or something, who gets a movie made? On top of that, who gets a movie made about a futuristic opera about organ repossessions and on top of that, gets one made with that type of cast! There’s a good sage way but being there on Friday night, which was on Sunset 5, the art house in Hollywood, kids were down there dressed up as their favorite characters. There was a Grave Robber and I got my pictures with him and it was amazing!
Now, I don’t know if the fan fare there that night was enough to sustain us to lasting and hopefully, expanding from the eight theatres we’re in, but I sure as hell hope so. At least there have been indications that, now there are people that love it and embrace it saying they’re going tomorrow, tomorrow with different costumes, you just go wow!
But your question, because Repo! was so strange and out there, I know Darren (Bousman) wanted the casting to mirror that, so when we all knew Repo! was going forward as a movie, we started getting suggestions by producers and it became clear that they weren’t totally aware of what we doing. Their suggestions were very much like MTV, they were pop singers, I mean they could do it and we felt it was like a mash-up and not for a 21st Century Repo! which we wanted to do. So, the two Darrens and myself, sort of made our dream cast and that sounds silly, but we shot ideas around amongst ourselves and basically had five people for each role. For a couple of reasons, one we wanted choices and two, match them up to their personality, their archetype if you will so they represented the character. As such, funnily enough, of the eight principle characters in the movie, six of those were from our top five lists, we got what we wanted. Of those other two, we got Ogre and it wasn’t that we didn’t want him, it’s just we were thinking too small at the time.
We were looking at actors and when somebody brought up Skinny Puppy to help with the soundtrack, and it just clicked. Oh my God, Ogre would be the perfect body for Povi and we started crossing off the other from the list. So we had to start convincing the producers about him as the right choice, who of course, didn’t have any acting experience.
Jon: Since Repo! is an opera, Sarah Brightman seems perfect for the material. What was it like working with her?
Terrance: Well, she was a complete professional. I’m not necessary a fan of her solo work but you know, when she was on our list already. She is the most famous female opera singer in the world and the most successful, so it was a no brainer to cast her. We didn’t think she’d do a project like Repo! and little did we know for one she’s totally Goth in real life and two, really cool and into it. She wasn’t just faking it, she really was into it as was the cast, you know, nobody made a lot of money doing Repo! The cast did more hours, more work, than a normal movie. You had to rehearse, you had to do choreography, and the entire thing you had to do before filming and everyone who took the job, including Sarah, fully knew and embraced what they were doing all for something that doesn’t come along every day.
I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but there’s not too many rock operas getting produced in this fashion. You know it’s funny; I’m not that into operas I’m more into rock and industrial, so I didn’t have the ear necessary to hear why this one opera singer is better than this opera singer. But walking on set and watching Sarah, even more so than hearing her, have you heard her? She’s great, but I’ve heard a lot of opera singers, but what makes her stand out from the pack and then you just get her vibe. She’s a total pro. Watching her doing it in her element, is like watching a goddess. It was very clear to why she had the success she does. She’s great, the whole package, she’s amazing to watch and people who are doing rock and roll in our studio, who could care less about opera, we’re all captivated by her as her typical audience.
Jon: As a direct opposite to Brightman, Repo features Poe, Clown from Slipknot, members from Filter, OTEP, Skinny Puppy, and even Anthony Head from Music for Elevators. What did they bring to the musical side of Repo!?
Terrance: They brought a lot! (laughs) The way I would describe it and not to sound condescending, so I hope that don’t come out the wrong way, but Repo! as a whole was not a democracy. What I mean by that is, we were really set to doing this as an opera, and I won’t give away names but their were people who came in as potential candidates for the roles and came in and said: “Cool, but I what to write my own music.” Really? They wanted to write their own songs and that “Legal Assassin” song, we didn’t like the hard rock, so they asked to do this singer/songwriter thing. There were a couple of people who came in thinking along those lines. Those people were talented, I’m not knocking their talent, but if they wanted to do that they should write their own opera.
We’re in the position to do it as a rock opera and so when we were casting these actors and performers, we were playing the soundtrack. We were really, really careful about it. A lot of players on the Repo! soundtrack are in my CD collection at home and it was really, really cool to work with them. We were trying to cast those with the same aesthetics as the song they were to play on. Some of these were the musical godfathers of what we were paying homage too. We had people who knew the material, for one it’s an opera. You don’t have to spend time rewriting when you have Blasko currently from Ozzy’s band, but also from Rob Zombie’s band, you know he’s going to add elements to it that is better than you could think of. So you let him do it and Joseph Bishara, our music producer, was really diligent about directing them to stay true to some of the early demos.
Jon: One of the things I keep hearing is that Repo! has to be seen a few times just to soak everything in. Was it ever daunting taking the theater world and expanding it to the medium of film?
Terrance: Yeah, but first there’s many difference from theatre and film, many we learned that the hard way. On stage, everything’s total, it’s on there. In film, the more you show and the less you tell, makes for a more successful film. That makes for a difficult obstacle for a musical or in our case, an opera; because you do need to tell everything in song, so if you do away with all of the singing, then why make it an opera? Go make an action movie or a traditional film.
I think that maybe is a valid question and one of the negative criticisms of Repo! is that you can’t soak it all in one seating. In general, that’s true with any opera. I think we may have made a mistake in many ways by advertising Repo! as the next Rocky Horror. That’s been a comparison that has been kind of thrusted upon us, but I’ll take it because I like Rocky Horror, actually I love Rocky Horror. If we could achieve a small part of that success, I’d be a very happy man! With that said, I think we might have messed up with that comparison because we are an opera and Rocky Horror is a musical. Even further, what we love about Rocky Horror is the camp, the over-the-top-ness, and Repo! have a lot of those elements.
There’s many times in Repo! that we dive into camp, but with that said where Rocky ends and Repo! takes off, is that we have a real story. I mean, a real human story, with characters who are suppose to care about, with big operatic themes like revenge, murder, lust, and family quarrels, your legacy and your genetics, these big themes, and Rocky Horror really doesn’t have that. Their about the fun, the camp, seeing Tim Curry in garters and that’s what seeing Rocky Horror is about. We have some of that, but it’s actually much more complicated and then you add to the fact that there isn’t much speaking, and Rocky isn’t that way, it’s largely spoken. There’s, I don’t know, like 8 songs to break up the talking, where Repo! has like 50 songs!
If you go see a traditional opera, which is a closer comparison, you don’t understand most of it. When you’re sitting there, for one it might be in a different language, even if it was in English, you are there to witness the grandeur, hopefully enjoy the music, while getting little bits of it. Every opera provides you, when you sit down, with a playbill. That playbill not only tells you who’s who in the opera, it literally gives you a detailed synopsis of the entire play. Tells you who lives, who dies, tells you everything that is going to happen. The reason is to let you enjoy the opera. It’s not about carefully listening to every word, it’s an opera!
We are doing this in a 21st Century medium in film, we didn’t want to have programs as that felt to outdated and we didn’t want to do subtitles as you see in some operas, I thought that would be distracting, so we added in this element of comic books, which wasn’t in the script as it was in the final film. One, it was like a breather in between some of the songs, so you are not just having song after song after song after song, where they act like the playbill, but hopefully cooler! (laughs)
Jon: Yep, I saw those in the trailer.
Terrance: Oh, right they are there! More over though, I actually like the fact that you have to see it a couple of times, I don’t know if that’s what the general public wants, but look at some other operas and those things still exist, but there not for the Repo! kids but they existed for hundreds of years. For that matter, musicals, why is Rent still running or why has Phantom of the Opera lasted? I think that like CDs you want to listen to them over and over, unlike some films you don’t want to watch in the same fashion. I think it functions in that way and as such Repo! fans will want to see it again and again, becoming a community experience. I think that’s the real comparison we have to Rocky Horror.
Jon: It must be working because your per screen average was the same as Role Models, and that opened at number 2 and in 2,700 more theaters.
Terrance: Well, we’re hopefully that this will open up some eyes and it’s a hard thing. I’m sure you’ve seen some of the reviews…
Jon: …I don’t mean to put you in a weird position, but if I am correct the play version was received positively. What are the film critics missing?
Terrance: Well, I think for a couple of reasons. Repo! as a play was never ever confused with being mainstream. It existed in black box theaters. It was judged and embraced by the actual audience seeing it. I think when you slip out of that, which we were happy to do,  I’ve been a struggling artist my whole life (laughs) and  I’m still struggling to get my movie out there! It sounds ungrateful but if you work on something so had and so long, you want to believe as an artist that whatever you do you want the mainstream to like your work. The reality is, when I look at myself, I take the immediate feeling of rejection…well, I’m sitting in my room looking at my DVD collection now, and book collection and there isn’t anything really popular here. (laughs)
In fact, most of the stuff here is not mainstream, but is embraced by a loyal group of fans and one I think I’m part of. I think that the problem with Repo! is that we almost did our job too well. What I mean by that is our trailer looks really slick. We casted some huge names, Sarah Brightman obviously, Paul Sorvino, Paris Hilton, and so I think people are going in assuming we had a lot more money and two we are trying to be Sweeney Todd. Our fans clearly see that we aren’t Sweeney Todd, it never comes into there minds. Repo! has been perceived falsely I think by the mainstream and this may sound really bad, but I don’t know why we went to the mainstream, honestly, seriously!
What would Ebert and Roeper think? We opened it eight theatres and presented it to them, it’s silly. We competing with Madagascar 2 and it’s silly. Repo! is doing that. Love it or hate it and people have obviously hated it, I hope you can at least walk away and respect the fact that we did something unique. More so, sitting back and seeing that there’s a lot of interesting human stories that got it here. Even now, it’s being dismissed. We’ve seen the Rolling Stone’s write up, which was really hard to swallow. I know Rolling Stone is popular, especially with music and never once in this review, which was scathing by the way, never once did they mention that this was the most music ever recorded for a movie.
You think as a music man, that would be worthy of a mention. The players on the soundtrack, to get that group of people together, on a movie soundtrack was never mentioned, literally never mentioned! When has that ever happened, not being mentioned by the biggest music magazine? Instead Peter Travers chose to focus on Paris Hilton for the entire rant! By the way, if you hate her films, love or hate what she does is this movie, I think she’s fine in it; she’s literally like in the movie for 10-15 minutes! But to focus on her and not to mention the other things is like not seeing the movie. He probably didn’t anyway; he saw Paris Hilton and thought he would talk shit.
We’ve been getting a lot of that type of stuff and it’s hard, because we are so against the wall, a true David and Goliath type of story. The director and I have been personally, I don’t know if you know this, personally been promoting the movie for the last year. We’re leaving tomorrow-you literally called me in the middle of booking hotels-we’re personally taking the film around.
Jon: It’s pretty exciting I think.
Terrance: I am too, I’m excited to do this and I’m not trying to sound like I’m tooting my own horn, but we are really caring about what we are doing. It’s truly a grass-roots movement. Even though, Darren has had success in the Saw films, this is what he really wants to do. You should see the amount of energy and passion he puts into Repo! on a daily basis, it’s like how could you be so cruel and short-sighted in a review? I don’t hear mainstream directors taking their movie around. We are selling out by the way, we’ve sold out all but two, and they’re close. This is with no marketing budget, you’re not seeing Repo! on bus stops or billboards or even the trailer on TV. So to get those types of reviews, it’s completely like they missed the point of the movie. It’s an opera, you know!
An honest criticism I think, would be if they said it’s not for me but it’s totally strange and if you’re into strange things you might enjoy this. But they haven’t even dealt with what they didn’t like about it. The two Darrens and myself got quite drunk yesterday and it’s hard, as an artist, you can’t defend yourself. We had a few pitchers of margaritas at this little Mexican bar in Pasadena, and we’re like how do we combat this? Ultimately, we are thinking about embracing it. Certainly, movies like Rocky Horror got panned. But I think every move that’s come along, certainly movies I have in my house, was critically hated. But all those films have out-lived that and are still relevant. Ones that are praised and made millions of dollars opening weekend are quickly forgotten about.
Jon: I can quickly think of John Carpenter’s The Thing opened in the same year with E.T., and with E.T., it got praised and made a lot of money and The Thing got panned. Looking back, it’s one of the better films from the 1980’s besides Raging Bull, in my opinion.
Terrance: Sure, even more recently a film like Fight Club and how that failed. Honestly, when I saw Fight Club for the first time, well, for one the marketing set you up in the wrong way, more over I saw it and thought “yeah, that’s okay.” But it stuck with me after I left the theatre. I had to see it again and again, as I probably have watched that DVD, easily one of my higher watched DVDs…
Jon: Same here.
Terrance: I love the film, I think is brilliant, I think it’s an important movie, and I think has stood the test of time from that year, what else was there from that year? So you know, I hope we’re in that company, I can’t say for sure as being completely objective since it’s my movie, but love it or hate it, I think, I hope, people can get behind the fact that “wow, they went there!” They managed to get a movie like that made before dismissing it outright and saying “Give me more Madagascar 2! Give me more Alvin and the Chipmunks!”
It’s like well, fuck you (laughs) you know, you’re the reason we have this bullshit, you’re the reason we can only get music at Starbucks. I don’t have any sympathy, it’s empowering to see the fans who are supporting Repo!, coming out in droves, as they definitely understand what we are up against. They are embracing it, they are discovering it, they don’t feel like a marketing firm is telling them to like it and they like it despite of the marketing. To me, that’s the greatest success. Do I hope Repo! makes a lot of money and so that I can get health insurance? Yeah, sure! But I’ll me more content that people really like it, are loyal fans, and liking it for years to come.
Jon: Well, we here believe in what you guys are saying and doing and look forward o support you guys through it. Thank you for talking with Killer Film.
Terrance: Thank you for spreading the word and helping us beat the odds.
Terrance is an awesome guy and really frank and down-to-Earth. Hopefully, Lions Gate sees some potential to expand it. Have you seen Repo! A Genetic Opera yet? Tell us what you think or go here to see where you can go see it.
