A few days ago, the trailer hit Youtube for Alex Cox’s Repo Chick, shot entirely on greenscreen and looking kind of awkward, if affordable. Not a sequel to Repo Man. The sequel to Repo Man is 2008’s Waldo’s Hawaiian Holiday, a graphic novel following the exploits of Emilio Estevez’s Otto character, now Waldo for some reason or another, as he returns from a decade on Mars.
As of 1/29, the trailer has been removed. This sort of thing happens at Youtube all the time, but this time it’s “removed by user,” and since the user is alexcoxfilms, perhaps there’s more to the story? No word yet on Cox’s website. Legal issues have been swirling around the project for some time, to wit:
Repo Chick actually can’t legally be a sequel to Repo Man, the rights to which are owned by Universal. Also upcoming, also owned by Universal: this April’s Jude Law/Forest Whitaker artificial-organ-repossession chase flick Repo Men. This would be less confusing if they’d stuck with the original title, Repossession Mambo, but Cox feels they’re muddying the waters intentionally, perhaps out of retaliation. Universal sent him a cease-and-desist when they heard about Repo Chick, thinking it an illegal sequel to Repo Man, but Cox pointed out that it was just another movie set in the repo biz, and shared no characters or settings. He also explains that Repo Men can’t legally be a sequel to Repo Man either, as his contract states he would have to be offered the directing gig.
The trailer’s still up unofficially, for the moment:
Anyway, nice to see Miguel Sandoval getting lead roles. The female lead is Jaclyn Jonet, whose only other credited film work is Cox’s own Searchers 2.0 – which means her entire filmic career consists of referential non-sequels. Maybe she can get some work on The Marathon Man Returns or something?