SuicideGirls Visits Set of Repo!: The Genetic Opera Part 1
by Ryan Stewart

When Lionsgate Films invited me to visit the Toronto set of their new horror-opera Repo!: The Genetic Opera, my first thought was that the scariest thing I'd encounter would be the flight to-and-fro. Still, I sent the Lionsgate rep my passport number, they booked my trip, and I was committed. On the morning of October 12, I got up early and packed a bag for what would be a whirlwind trip -- up to Toronto by noon on Friday and back in New York by late Saturday night. (Assuming there was no mid-air collision or catastrophic engine failure or gremlins on the wing.)

I arrived in Toronto on schedule, went through customs quickly, greeted the Lionsgate toadie holding the big sign reading "LIONSGATE," and hopped into a van destined for the Metropolitan Hotel. By 3:00 pm on Friday, I was being driven to the set of Repo! in downtown Toronto, where I would run into some really nice people from both LA and NY film outlets, including Ryan Rotten of ShockTillYouDrop.com, "Spooky" Dan from Bloody-Disgusting.com, Kara Warner of UGO.com and several others. After my vanload of people was deposited outside of the nondescript set -- all movie sets look indistinguishable from auto mechanic garages from the outside -- it was time to get ready to wait.

Once the unit publicist was ready to give us our visitor badges and make us sign (in blood) our confidentiality agreements, we proceeded around to a narrow alleyway with crew trailers on one side and a tall fence on the other side. And what exactly was on the other side of that fence? Norton Smash! Sets for The Incredible Hulk were being built just steps away from where we stood, and while we waited for our tour guides to come out and start touring, several of us peered through the cracks in the fence. Mostly, all we could spot was the husk of a giant military plane and what appeared to be a burned-out building. These sets were just being built, so there was no action going on yet. Next, we were greeted by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich, creators of the stage play on which Repo! is based. Nice guys, they gave us a thorough explanation of exactly how Repo! evolved from stage to screen, what the project means to them, and how they are involved in the filming.

Repo! The Genetic Opera is an all-singing horror film set in the near future and follows the exploits of an evil biotech company called GeneCo, which offers all manner of organ replacements -- some life-saving, some cosmetic -- with the caveat that if you don't make your payments on time, they reserve the right to repossess. Repo! is not a musical -- it's a "techno-Wagnerian opera", as the creators described it. There will be no spoken dialog in the film of any kind, which is going to create huge challenges for Lionsgate marketing. Also, the film's songs have been recorded long in advance, so director Darren Lynn Bousman must follow a completely boxed-in filming formula, tailoring the story to match the pre-recorded music. The star of the movie is Paris Hilton, playing the vapid and spoiled daughter of GeneCo's president, who is played by the ebullient Paul Sorvino. I don't know if their characters survive the film, but the creators told us they have "20 ideas" for sequels should this one do well, and they also want to do Repo! graphic novels.

After their talk out by the trailers, Smith and Zdunich led us into the interior -- the sets. We walked through a dim, dusty passageway that led into a larger space with several adjoining set pieces, the biggest of which were a circus set and the large interior of an opera house, which we were told would soon be in use, with extras filling the rafters. All around, I noticed prototype one-sheets tacked up, with catch-phrases like "Say No to Zydrate" -- the heroin of the future. After walking around this area, we were ushered to the interior set of the house of Repo Man -- the villainous repossession agent who performs organ repo -- and then we saw the most interesting set, the "training room." This room contained cellophane-wrapped mannequins suspended in mid-air from chains stretching up to the high ceiling and a blood-covered, dentist's chair. You can imagine how this will fit into the plot -- a repo man performing a grisly live autopsy on a wayward debtor to take back their organs, singing all the while. Sweeney Todd meets Saw.

After seeing these key sets, our Lionsgate handlers took us around to to meet the film's prop master, who of course supervises boxes and boxes of props. The most interesting props were the numerous vacuum-sealed organs, including greasy, lifelike hearts and kidneys and entrails, which the repo men will go about extracting. We saw the money of the future, which looked like gold dubloons, we saw a large number of glowsticks that are being used in scenes of Zydrate injections, and we saw the various medical instruments that repo men will use for organ extraction. After, we went to visit the set designer, who told us that his primary instruction from director Bousman was that the film "not look like a Saw film." This part of the visit was truncated, however, because Bousman had gotten wind of our presence and came over to invite us to watch a two-minute DVD of compiled footage he'd shot and edited. So off we went, to a small director's tent with a video monitor set up in the middle of it.

Despite what the set designer said, the footage we saw looked a little like a Saw film to me, only set to music. There was the same washed-out, grimy color and the same emphasis on a dank, moldy atmosphere. I don't really know how else to describe it, since it was just a series of rapid cuts featuring the actors in futuristic, ornate costumes. (Paris Hilton apparently alters her appearance multiple times throughout the film, so I didn't even recognize her if she was in the sequence.) It went by so quick that after it was over, we immediately asked to see it again to get a better handle on it -- request denied! After this went down, the Lionsgate handlers announced that they were going to take us over to the costuming department, to which Bousman replied, sarcastically, "Ooooh, sounds exciting!" This was where a mini-breakdown in the schedule finally occurred. Bousman personally invited a few of us to huddle down in a doorway and watch a scene being filmed, featuring Paul Sorvino and Alexa Vega.

Lionsgate tried to keep the group moving on, since watching filming was apparently not on the schedule, but we staked out some space and hunkered down to watch, as Sorvino sung a few bars at the steps of the opera house, in some kind of ribbon-cutting ceremony scene, while circus extras clapped and applauded in front of him. This was my favorite part of the visit, and based on what I saw, Sorvino seems like he might be a handful to work with. Bousman apparently didn't call action loud enough on one of the takes and Sorvino decided to break his balls repeatedly about this, in front of everyone! It was right around this time that Paris Hilton suddenly walked by me, out of costume, and then disappeared out of sight. I guess she wasn't working that afternoon. After watching the scene be run through a few times, Bousman asked us journalists to come and stand amidst the extras to fill the frame, and that was fun, but I was standing near a stilt-walker and feared I'd knock him over.

After the quick visit -- two to three hours on set all-together, I'd say -- we were gathered up and taken back to the hotel. Later that night, we attended a private screening of Saw IV. Lionsgate was so worried about us leaking information that they trotted someone out before the film to threaten us with arrest and prosecution if we recorded any of it. They also took the extraordinary step of removing the last reel of the film, so that we couldn't blab the ending. Saw IV cast member and '80s scream queen Betsy Russell (Cheerleader Camp, Cheerleader Camp II) was in the audience and hanging out in the lobby afterwards -- at 44, I'm happy to report she still looks pretty great! After the screening, I went back to my room, watched Paul Verhoeven's Black Book on demand, ordered a modest room service dinner, and went to sleep. Saturday would be press day -- two all-day junkets at the hotel for Repo! and Saw IV.

Stay tuned for Part II tomorrow...