Well, we at Killer Film are going to change that with a new feature called ‘Late Night Classics, where we will be bringing you reviews, interviews, and screenings from various favorites that have been lost in the shuffle.

I can’t think of a better film to kick things off than Larry Cohen’s 1985 satirical riff on consumerism, The Stuff. David ‘Mo’ Rutherford [Michael Moriaty] is a industrial sabotuer who is hired by the heads of the ice cream industry to investigate the hottest dessert on the market. It flies of the shelves with its great taste, no calories, and highly addictive taste. Little does anyone know is that The Stuff is a organism that takes over your body and turns you into a pod person. With the help of a young boy [Scott Bloom], a competitor named ’Chocolate Chip’ Charlie [Garrett Morris], and a advertising executive [Andrea Marcovicci] – Mo [money] Rutherfood sets out to destroy the parasitic blob that consumes people from the inside out.

The American Cinematheque brought in Larry Cohen to the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, California for a screening of The Stuff where he talked about his underappreciated stomach churner. He discussed everything from the origins of The Stuff – which he says, “Is an alien lifeform that bubbles up from the ground”, to the early role that was given to a young Eric Bogosion as a Supermarket Clerk. Patrick Dempsey also shows up in a uncredited role as a underground Stuff buyer.

Little did everyone know that Larry brought signed containers from the film to hand out to all the fans who attended. I was lucky enough to be in the first three rows and was the first person to get one when he tossed one in the audience. I couldn’t believe that I was now an owner of a piece of history. I recall an ad in my local newspaper for the movie when it opened, and I haven’t seen it anywhere since. It had a hand reaching out of a carton of The Stuff. I’d buy that for more than a dollar if someone can find it for me.

Jon: When I talked to Darren, he was saying that it was a constant uphill battle convincing everyone about Repo! What was it that got you involved?

Anthony Head: Um, somehow I’ve just been writing my chapter on a book. Darren wanted us to write about our experiences about making a cult movie. My experience, there was nothing uphill on my experience, there was no convincing on my part, I kind of came in on the end of the process. What ever uphill battle he had I think it’s because it’s either one of those movies people either love or hate. In my experience thus far it has mostly been a love. Have you seen it?

Jon: No, not yet. It’s opening soon near me. My friend will be seeing it opening night in Austin, Texas…obviously, I’m very excited as I’ve been doing all of these interviews!

Anthony: (laughs) Well, I hope you do like it. Like I said, in my experience you either love it or they don’t get it at all. His main problem, I think, was that he had to convince Lions Gate that this was a movie that they wanted to make and even to the end, I don’t think they realized it was a musical. They didn’t know what to do with it anyway. I happened to be in L.A. when they put the feelers out on me and they called my agent asking “How can we get a hold of Tony Head.” She said, “Well, he’s actually in town right now!” (laughs)

When I met them at the studio to sing, I don’t think it was a done deal. It didn’t take a lot of convincing for Darren. I think it was for Lions Gate, as they were looking at an English actor and they didn’t know my track record of what I can do. As it happens, musicals have played a large part in my career. In fact my first role was in Godspell. But you know they didn’t know that, if they didn’t see Once More with Feeling, they wouldn’t know that I could sing. But anyway, when I did my audition, Darren recorded it and sent them the tape and that afternoon I was at the pub, so it wasn’t too much of an uphill battle. From there on it, it was a question of ironing out the timing because I had another job and I had only like 2-3 days I could record in. Everyone was worried about that. I’ve been in studios off and on all my life so I didn’t have a problem getting back in. So I said, “Look, let’s do the heart of it later rather than earlier to let my voice get back in, um, accustomed, so I did some of the harder Repo! songs towards the end of the sessions. We ended up with like 3-4 days, but then Darren had to go up to Canada to start prepping. I went back to England to do another job.

So when I got to Toronto the tracks were semi-mixed. The first week it was just me and Alexa (Vega) and it was all of the stuff in her bedroom, in the Wallace house. Then we got into the full thing, we did rehearsals with the rest of the cast. Darren has the most extraordinary energy, the most wonderful exuberance; I don’t know what he is like on other films, but this is undoubtedly his dream and he had a rapid tenacity, it was absolutely wonderful to watch him. In rehearsal nobody was quite sure what to do and he would just say “how about we do this”. He would just create whole moves and dances; he had such a clear vision on how he wanted to photograph this. Jay White his DP, is just remarkable, it’s just a beautiful thing to watch. In writing this I’ve just been saying how he wanted to shoot this was with pools of light and darkness that we moved in and out of and that could be a recipe for a very dark film (laughs) you know (laughs).

As it happens he used this camera, Genesis, an HD camera, 35mm camera, I’ve seen it used it several very major movies, but not really to this effect. He used it really as an effect camera, so some of the artwork is absolutely stunning! I’ve have not seen it used to this effect. It was just a blast! If there’s anything I could say, I’ve said it a couple of times, I saw a rough cut that Darren sent to me on a DVD and a bit of the timing was off and this and that, but as I was watching it on the small screen, I recalled going to Spain at this festival and watch it on the big screen with full sound and it was just spectacularly beautiful. I can only urge people to go see it in the theater. For two reasons: the more people to go see it, the more cinemas it will open in and it’s very much a question of trial and error with Lions Gate as they are still unconvinced. I think they’re becoming more convinced as there’s more positive reviews and positive feedback. Nonetheless, it is a question of trial and error. It is very much an indie film fighting for its life and its longevity. The other thing is it’s worth watching in a movie house; I would be very happy to go back again and again, it’s one of those movies where it’s all happening so fast you miss little bits and pieces. So many details and so much to see, as Darren keeps saying it isn’t a movie, it’s an event.

Jon: In the interview I had with him he kept saying that.

Anthony: I think he was very pleased with that… (laughs)

Jon: Bousman said he cast you because you could portray a father figure one moment and a monster next. What was it about Nathan Wallace, your character and where did you dig to get him like that?

Anthony: Well, unfortunately, I have to say that it must be a part of me. That’s the thing about being an actor; you must draw on what you know. We all got those elements in us and it’s a part of us that we can kill. I would find it very difficult to kill another man or woman, anybody particularly. But if they threaten my children, I might find that those areas you don’t necessarily use everyday, but its part of our psyche, it’s the human condition, it’s so complicated and so exciting and all of the rest of it. When I was doing my audition, someone on the table said that this is a great role for an actor because it’s two people you’re playing, two people completely. To add to the complication, Nathan Wallace shot his father; he had slightly his own agenda, protective but nonetheless it was quite distracting. When he becomes Repo Man, he sort of dresses up, kind of a showman, that’s his job as he disembowels somebody, it’s a bizarre showman mode with a little dance. (laughs) Quite a bizarre little dance actually. (laughs)

It’s, you know, he has to recompense himself somehow, not so much as justify his existence but distance himself from it and to the victim. Which as an actor, is a great thing to play, somebody who is tormented like that, it’s fascinating. Probably where Darren saw that was in Giles on Buffy, as Giles was a father figure to Buffy but at the same time he had this dark side. You knew if he finally switched into it, he was nasty. I think it was something Joss Whedon saw in me, somewhere along the lines and I had fun playing with it. He’s the only person; Giles is the only person to kill in cold blood. That’s something that was fun to play.

Jon:  You have a music background especially with Music For Elevators your band, and have done a few duets before again notably in Once More With Feeling, how was it working with Alexa Vega, who doesn’t have that type of history with music?

Anthony: She was a dream. I remember when I went to do my audition Darren said let’s do “Legal Assassin” and “I Didn’t Know I Loved You so Much” and he said they could get Alexa to do it with me. I said, “Oh, okay” because she was already on board and the next morning we did “Legal Assassin” and I asked “is this where Alexa is coming in?” And Darren went, “oh, um, no, no” and then said “hang on a moment” and picked up his phone and called her and woke her up! He said “Hey! Anthony Head is here, do you want to come down and audition with him?” Bless her heart, she got in her car and came, singing her heart out. That was it; she just stepped right up to the plate, so it wasn’t hard developing a father/daughter relationship with her. She was a joy to work with, an absolute joy.

Jon:  Did you wear the Repo Man suit and how was that, or was there a stunt double for that?

Anthony: No! (laughs) There was a stunt double for basically a drop that they did and they wouldn’t let me, but I really wanted to. You won’t see it because it isn’t in the movie and we did two fairly protracted fight sequences…I don’t know, they may make a Director’s Cut at some point or DVD extras. I did have a stunt double but in the end I had to do it. I basically had to do it because I moved different than my double. That was fun; you know I got to beat someone up with an amputated leg-

Jon/Anthony: (laughs)

Anthony: but not mine, I would hate to do that! By and large, I did it, but it was more about Repo, his presence, his costume, Alex Kavanagh designed it and was very open with me. We talked about it extensively and worked through the needs, the sort of what it needed to look like. It needed to be practical, drawing on Nathan’s medical background, its part assassin, part surgeon. It was great fun working through this bizarre piece of merchandise. If the film is successful, someone is going to make the costume I’m sure or action figure.

Jon: That would be great! You already have an action figure as Giles, I believe.

Anthony: I got one as Giles and I got one from the film I’ve been doing over in England which is Merlin. It’s just been bought by NBC.

Jon: Oh, good. I heard the BBC were originally doing it…

Anthony: Yeah and NBC is, I think, going to show it on Sundays. It’s a very, very, cool show and it’s gone down really well here and we just had our pictures taken for the action figures. So, if it goes for a second season there will be action figures before Christmas.

Jon: Finally, the musical genre has been exploding as of late, with Dreamgirls, Sweeney Todd, Mamma Mia, and of course Repo! amongst other, it feels like the 1940s again. What do you think is the cause for the return of the musical?

Anthony: I don’t think musicals ever went away, and as I said, the film companies are still shy of them. Sweeney Todd had no music advertised in the trailers, so people are nervous on how audiences will act. I think when audiences are persuaded to go see a show, they enjoy it enormously and I don’t know how true it is, but I heard that people sort of got up and left during Sweeney Todd when they saw people singing. I don’t know how true that is.

Jon: At my screening, nobody did.

Anthony: Good! (laughs)

Jon: Exactly, I loved that film.

Anthony: But I think with something like this, this is very rare, I have not seen anything like this before. It’s like a protracted music video but with heart, soul, and a story. You just get caught up in it, the narrative drive of it just doesn’t let up and it’s fascinating. Because of its collective mix of musical styles, you never get tired and it’s not like “oh, it’s another song” like watching something like the Phantom of the Opera. It’s got a real hard rock drive, but with a weird mix of Sarah Brightman and Paul Sorvino doing a really classic tenor and it’s fascinating. It all fits. Whether it’s like the ‘40s, or we’re getting back to the ‘40s and a taste for music, I don’t know, but this is definitely outside of the box. It’s not one of those where you say “ahh, it’s a musical like Mamma Mia!

Consequently, it’s probably not for the Mamma Mia! audience. Which is a shame, because Mamma Mia! has made millions at the box office but at the same time there are, I still haven’t seen it I must admit, there are those who feel like they need something more. I hope that this will gives it to them.

Jon: Well, I can’t wait and I really want to thank you for your time this evening over there in England to talk with Killer Film.

Anthony: Thank you. Bye, now.

Repo! is out now in very few cities, so if you’re lucky enough to see it do. By doing that, other people might just have the chance at catching this unique film in the theaters. Keep it here on Killer Film for more coverage on Repo! If you have seen it, tell us what you think in our comment section!

“REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA” ROAD TOUR ANNOUNCES DATES

The gothic rock-opera will tour seven cities in seven days for ONE NIGHT
ONLY screenings

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
November 10-16, 2008

“REPO! The Genetic Opera” takes place in the year 2056 — the not so
distant future – when an epidemic of organ failures devastates the
planet.  GeneCo, a biotech company begins to offer organ transplants –
for a price. Those who miss their payments are scheduled for
repossession and hunted by villainous Repo Men.  There is almost no
spoken dialogue in the film (the music never stops), and all the actors
performed their own songs.  This unique vision (based on the original
stage play)  is directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (“Saw II,” Saw III,”
“Saw IV“) and stars ,  (from the band Skinny
Puppy) and Paris Hilton. The eclectic soundtrack features songs by
artists from Filter, Jane’s Addiction, Slipknot, Guns & Roses, Bauhaus
and Love & Rockets (and is on-sale now on Amazon.com and iTunes)

The film opens in selected cities (Los Angeles, Pasadena, Berkeley, New
York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Austin) on November 7,
2008.   And beginning on November 10, 2008, director Darren Lynn Bousman
and star/writer/composer Terrance Zdunich will travel the country for
seven days for ONE NIGHT ONLY screenings in seven cities.  Each
screening will be followed by a Q&A with filmmakers and the audience.
Other cast members may appear as surprise guests!

TICKETS ARE AVAILABLE NOW ON THE WEBSITE AT www.reporoadtour.com

Schedule is as follows:  November 10 – Porland, OR; November 11 -
Seattle, WA; November 12 – Chicago, IL; November 13 – Kansas City, KS; 

November 14 – Pittsburgh, PA; November 15 – Atlanta, GA; November 16 -
Orlando, FL

Click on the picture above to view it at a larger size.

Jon: Thanks for taking time, I know your really busy, to talk with us at Killer Film.

Bill: Yeah, that’s fine. Let’s fire away then.

Jon: When I spoke to Darren Lynn Bousman (reread that here) about Repo!, he said it was a constant uphill battle in convincing the studio and actors about the film. What was it that got you involved?

Bill: I first heard of Repo! a couple of years ago actually when I went to see Repo! when it was a little stage show on Hollywood Boulevard. It was a little store front theater, maybe three, three to four years ago. A friend of mine took me to see this cool play and thought it was fantastic. I didn’t mean Darren, that I recall but I was certainly impressed with the play, I thought I was a lot of fun. Then a couple of years ago I was at a horror convention, I think it was the Fangoria convention up in San Jose, and I was doing a Q and A in a section of a ballroom that had moving walls that created different sections. In the little room next to mine, after I did the Q and A, I heard Darren, who was also there talking to people in his Q and A talking about what I thought was Repo! and he was describing it. Again I was hearing this through a partition and I thought, man I’ve seen that before! As it turned out it was Repo! the show I had seen on Hollywood Boulevard and that Darren was planning on doing it after he finished Saw IV.

I talked to him and said I’d seen that show and boy, if you’re going to do that, to keep me in mind. Then flash forward and I got a call from him saying he’s ready to do Repo! and wanted me to meet with him, and the two creators Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich at the very cool Roosevelt hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. I met with them and we are seemed to relatively like each other. But the big question was that if I could sing. They gave me a song to prepare and I’ve been taking singing lessons for the last fifteen years and so the answer to that question was yes, I can sing. I was able to take that song to my singing teacher and we worked on it so that I could get the notes and get the dramatic presentation to it. I showed up to the studio one night and sang for the assembled director, creators, and the music people of Repo! and did a good enough job so they hired me.

Jon: So conventions aren’t all that bad! You got to meet future collaborators…

Bill: Those conventions are really cool. First of all, you get to meet the fans. Horror fans are the coolest fans of all and there they can meet their favorite movie stars and as I say “kick our tires”. They get to find out if someone is an asshole or not, or someone is cool, so that’s fun. Also, it’s fun to hang out with my “monsters” as I call them, because I am a horror fan. Well, I call them that because I love my fellow “monsters” because we’re trying to get the same job. It’s like a convention for dentists; we all talk shop, who’s doing what, who’s directing and hiring, sometimes there are directors or young filmmakers that want to make it someday, with maybe a cool script, you know there’s a lot of fun stuff that goes one there.

Jon: Yeah I just went to my first convention, Texas Frightmare this past February.

Bill: That’s a good one man, Lloyd Cryer. I remember doing the first two of those. Actually I think the first one was in Grapevine, Texas, with Sid Haig, Tom Savini, Ed Neal, the original hitchhiker from Texas Chain Saw, it cool. It’s just cool to be sitting there and across from you there’s Pinhead, there’s Gunnar Hanson, Leatherface, the hitchhiker, Ken Foree from Dawn of the Dead, you think ‘wow, man’ that’s Ashley Lawrence from Hellraiser, it’s cool. You just look around and think it’s cool.

Jon: Tell us about your character, Luigi Largo?

Bill: Luigi Largo is one of the three children of Largo, played by Paul Sorvino, the founder of an organ company called GeneCo. GeneCo. has risen, uh, in the future there’s been a massive epidemic of organ failures and there a company that has found a way to I guess clone organs somehow, I guess they’re kinda artificial or maybe cloned. What we do is sell organs to people who need them. We provide very liberal credit arrangements. The only problem is that if you can’t make your payments, we send the Repo Man to repossess their organs. So if you got a heart and aren’t making your payments, thanks to an act by Congress, the Repo Man can take the heart back even if it kills you and it’s not a crime. (laughs) The crime is not paying back the money you owe.

Of course it’s very topical these days. Congress hasn’t made it legal yet but that might be coming soon.

Jon: Like you’ve said the film has Paul Sorvino, Anthony Head, and Paris Hilton. There’s a pretty eccentric group of actors, actresses and musicians, how was being on set and working with them?

Bill: It was a ball! I was pretty comfortable with my character and to give you a quick thumbnail of him, Luigi is the oldest of the three children, I think I’m the heir apparent and dad’s been coughing lately so I might succeed him. He thinks we all useless trash and we’re very rich and can do whatever we want. I’m just very angry all the time, very intolerant, very frustrated, and I just lash out on everybody. I stab people, I throw them under trucks, and because we’re apart of the most powerful family on earth, dad just writes a check and everything is cool. So that’s who I am, I’m pissed and again I play Paris’ brother and Ogre’s from Skinny Puppy.

In terms of being on set with that type of group, it was really a lot of fun. What I think made it a lot of fun was that it wasn’t a clash of titanic egos, which could’ve happened I suppose, we were all just in love with the story we were telling, we loved the music, there’s was comradely, and there wasn’t a weak link in the cast. We all contributed an equal amount of talent and experience. Also, we loved Darren Bousman, the director. He had such a strong passionate vision of what he wanted Repo! to be that we just fell in love with his enthusiasm and we all worked very hard to see his vision come true.

Jon: Yeah, when I interviewed him, he seemed very naturalistically passionate about the film. It got me excited and I think it’s gathered steam and people are now excited to see it when it comes out in limited release November 7^th.

Bill: Yeah! It’s too bad, I’m looking at this other Twisted Pictures film, and Lions Gate helped Twisted Pictures do Repo! and I’m looking at the landscape of their poster child for the horror business, Saw V. Just looking at the amount of money they put behind Saw V, it opened somewhere in 3,000 theaters. They plugged the heck out of it and my golly! it made it’s $30 million bucks and I only wished there was that type of enthusiasm and money behind Repo! I think we’re opening in only 7 theaters, as opposed to 3,049 or whatever it was. There hasn’t been much of an advertising budget for us; I think we’re considered the awkward step-child. In all fairness to any company, in any publicity department or marketing department, to sell a horror opera to the general public is close to impossible.

I don’t think there is any easy way to do it, so that’s why we’ve just been banging the drum. The marketing has been pretty much just on our shoulders and we’re trying to be as loud (laughs) and wide as possible by sending out MySpace stuff, website stuff, going out through the different media, and November 6^th is our big red carpet premiere in Las Vegas of all places. It opens in seven cities and each theater in those seven cities, but after that Darren and some of his buddies are literally towing a print of Repo! in a van and driving it to another seven cities. Of course all that information and where it is opening is on the website.

Jon: That brings up an interesting point because Bousman brought up that Hollywood does not reward uniqueness and the film is vastly unique. As I seen the trailer, I couldn’t think of anything prior that I might have seen that could be related and that’s awesome. But you guys are taking this grassroots approach to letting us know that this film exists and how do you feel that? You and Bousman are very passionate about it, how do you think the general public is going to respond to it?

Bill: I think there are going to be ones that love it or hate it. I doubt very much that there will be those in between. Whatever website you read, I hope there’s a lot more A’s than F’s, but they’re won’t be B’s, C’s, and D’s. Either you love it or you hate it, ten stars or one star. I think that’s great. I remember Rob (Zombie) saying I hope I get either ten stars or one star. He rather have people hate the movie than people giving it a C, saying it was okay, it wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad. To him that was a kiss of death and the same for Repo!

In part two of the interview, we discuss some final thoughts on Repo!, but also we talk about Rob Zombie, the Oscars, his new films opening next year, and Omaha? Huh? Check back in part two of my interview with Bill Moseley, only on Killer Film!