Thursday, February 04, 2010

Here come the Repo Men... again...

I just stumbled across this site.

It's a really well-designed site that's a viral piece for an upcoming film called Repo Men, which stars Jude Law and Forest Whitaker.

The real site for the film is here.

The concept is a good one. In the (near) future, organ transplant science will have reached a point where the science is good, and while people will need them in order to avert terminal disease or fatal injuries, they won't be able to afford them.

This is where the big corporations come in.

With a financing plan, you'll be able to set up a payment plan in order to finance your new organs and new life.

But what happens if you fall behind on your payments?

They send the Repo Men out to collect the company's property.



It sounds like a novel concept, no?

No.

They totally lifted the plot from an excellent independent film from 2008 called Repo: The Genetic Opera, which is a dark, surreal rock opera that features (among others) Paris Hilton (who is actually good), Ogre (from Skinny Puppy), Sarah Brightman and a surprise cameo by one of the most badass women in rock and roll.



I know it's nothing new, but it rankles my limpets badly enough when Hollywood simply remakes a classic film out of greed and a lack of willingness to take a chance with a fresh idea, and it's even worse when they simply choose to rip off the indies who did it first and (probably) better.

See it if you must, but see the opera first.

3 comments:

Astroman said...

that reminds me; weren't you going to let me borrow that film?

Jennifer said...

Okay if I see the opera and not the rip-off?

Hm.

You post this without a clue toward your personal ethics on the matter.

I have qualms, even before the concept of greed creeps in. I mean, yeah, I'd want my organs to help others when those organs are no longer useful to me, but I'm always wondering: just because we can, should we?

I'd be happier donating organs if docs were happy to donate skills to transplant them and Big Pharm were happy to donate the necessary immunosuppressant medications. Organs should be a group gift, not just a gift from the brain-dead chick who happened to check the little box on the back of her driver's license because it seemed like a nice enough thing to do.

Saving a life should be a knee-jerk, gut response. There should be no price tag involved.

fineartist said...

The premise is killer, and hollywood, odd they didn't have the foresight to see it, until it had already been done.