TORONTO, Sept. 24 – Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF – News), the leading independent filmed entertainment studio, announced today that Twisted Pictures commenced principal photography this week in Toronto, Canada on REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA. The film is being produced by Daniel Heffner, Carl Mazzocone, Mark Burg and Oren Koules. Lionsgate’s President of Acquisitions and Co-Productions Peter Block and EVP Jason Constantine are overseeing production for the studio.
Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV) is directing from a screenplay by Terrence Zdunich and Darren Smith, co-creators of the original stage production of the same name upon which the film is based. Japanese musician, songwriter and composer Yoshiki Hayashi (better known as simply Yoshiki) is producing the film’s soundtrack.
International recording artist/performer Sarah Brightman (making her feature film debut), Anthony Head (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), Paris Hilton (“House of Wax”), Bill Moseley (“Halloween,” “The Devil’s Rejects”), Paul Sorvino (“The Cooler,” “Goodfellas”), and Alexa Vega (“Spy Kids”) make up the production’s beloved band of misfits in this incarnation.
Bousman is a longtime member of the Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate families, having directed the past three installments of their wildly successful Saw franchise. He has also long been involved in various incarnations of Repo!, having directed both the story’s first Los Angeles stage production in 2002 and a 2006 short film adaptation.
Directing a full-length filmed version of the story has always been a goal for Bousman, and he is enthusiastic about the cast that has been assembled for the production. “I’m very excited to be bringing this story to life with each of these outstanding performers,” Bousman raves. “They bring so much flair to Repo’s bizarre fantasy world while entirely disappearing into their shadowy characters.”
Burg and Koules agree, adding “Repo! explores human oddity in a really memorable and genre- bending way, and with our actors’ unique backgrounds and wide appeal across genres, the cast absolutely rises to the occasion.”
Set in the not-so-distant future, the production tells the story of an epidemic of organ failures that devastates the planet, killing tens of millions. As scientists feverishly make plans for a massive organ harvest program, a multi-billion dollar biotech company called GeneCo begins to manufacture salvation — for a price — offering simple payment plans to those lacking the necessary funds to purchase new body parts outright. But all financed organs are subject to default procedures, including repossession at the hand of the notorious organ repo men.
ABOUT TWISTED PICTURES — Twisted Pictures is helmed by Mark Burg and Oren Koules. SAW was the first feature released by the company, and the SAW franchise, distributed by Lionsgate, has become the most profitable horror franchise of all time. Twisted also produced CATACOMBS, also part of the nine- picture deal between Twisted and Lionsgate. The Company’s most recent feature SAW IV will be released in the U.S. by Lionsgate on October 26, 2007.
ABOUT LIONSGATE — Lionsgate is the leading independent filmed entertainment studio, winning the 2006 Best Picture Academy Award® for CRASH, generating two consecutive years of $300 million-plus domestic theatrical box office, operating a $500 million-plus home entertainment business and producing a broad slate of prime time television series for fiscal 2007. It is a premier producer and distributor of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment, and video-on-demand content. Its prestigious and prolific library of more than 10,000 titles is a valuable source of stable, recurring revenue and a foundation for the growth of the Company’s core businesses. The Lionsgate brand is synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.
I’d like to see movies that raise the consciousness of the people, so the environment will be healthier and people will speak together as one connected part of God.