Production and History
In 1996, Darren Smith had a friend who was going through bankruptcy and whose possessions were going into foreclosure. Inspired by this, Smith came up with the idea of a future where not only your property could be repossessed, but also your body parts. Smith and Terrance Zdunich collaborated ideas and plot lines to create "The Necromerchant's Debt".
The first version of Repo! was The Necromerchant's Debt, which told the story of a Graverobber in debt to a Repo Organ Man. It was first performed at the John Raitt theater. After being such a success, creators Smith and Zdunich expanded on the universe to create all of the storylines that became Repo! The Genetic Opera.
Many changes were made, gradually, to the characters and music. For example, Rotti, in the earliest performances, was not the father to Luigi, Pavi, and Amber. Instead, he was a younger brother to Luigi and Pavi, while Amber was Luigi's daughter.
Lyrics were adjusted to new arcs, and some songs were dropped altogether, for example, "But This Is Opera!", which was cut out in an effort to change the direction of Blind Mag's character. After years of being performed as a stage play, Repo! was adapted into a 10-minute short film directed and financed by Darren Lynn Bousman to pitch the idea to film companies. The film starred Shawnee Smith (Amanda Young in the Saw films) as Amber Sweet (then named "Heather Sweet"), Michael Rooker (Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer) as the Repo Man, Kristen Fairlie as Shilo, Terrance Zdunich as GraveRobber, and J. Larose as Pavi.
Once Repo! was picked up by Lionsgate, principal photography began on September 2007 in Canada. The film was scheduled to be released on April 25, 2008, but was pushed back to November 7. X Japan member Yoshiki Hayashi produced the soundtrack, along with composing one extra track for the film. He also serves as one of the film's producers. Paul Masse was the cast's vocal coach for the film's soundtrack.
Read more about this topic: Repo! The Genetic Opera
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