1.) Club Hel

Location: The Matrix's Mega City
What kind of Crowd? Usually the tie-me-and-gag-me types like to hang out in this leather clad-paradise, but it usually seems to have a regular crowd of rogue programs masquerading as werewolves, vampires and other paranormal anomalies.
Why you should give it a shot: Most people might be thrown off by the number of vinyl cows killed to make the fetish gear, but if you were smart enough to take the red pill, this is old hat.

2.) Holoband Clubs

Location: Anywhere you want, as long as your live in Battlestar Galactica's 12 colonies.
What kind of Crowd? The holoband clubs located in the virtual realm of one's mind make Club Hel look like a neighborhood bar. Teens go inside these illegal clubs to indulge in their most deviant desires, which at the very least involve kinky sex and at the very most include human sacrifice.
Why you should give it a shot: Should you meet an unfortunate demise, this is the best place to hide a virtual replica of yourself.

3.) The Snake Pit

Location: Blade Runner's Los Angeles in the year 2019.
What kind of Crowd? The world's social elite all cooped up together, smoking opium.
Why you should give it a shot: You can have fun spotting the replicants posing as bar patrons. Why stay at home, when you can witness an existential struggle over what it means to be human take place in your neighborhood bar.

4.) The Genetic Opera

Location: Repo! The Genetic Opera's Central entertainment featuring the Blind Mag.
What kind of Crowd? If you think that Los Angeles has a bad reputation for fake people, you obviously haven't been to a city where augmenting your body is as simple as going in for a haircut.
Why you should give it a shot: It's an opera, which is hardly a bar, but when you're high on the painkiller that everybody's hooked on, Zydrate, you don't really need a Rum and Coke to tickle your fancy.

Blame the financial crisis for a new boom in movies with "repo" in the title, as well as a sudden interest in recycling on the part of movie studios. Cox started filming Repo Chick last January, and recently he got a cease-and-desist letter from Universal, which released Repo Man. He wrote on his blog:

I anticipated the "cease and desist" letter from The Studio, attempting to stop production of REPO CHICK on the grounds that it was an illegal sequal to REPO MAN. That was inevitable, given the history of the company, whose parent - MCA - stood for "Muscle, Cash and Attorneys." So, when a letter came, forbidding me to make my movie and signed by no less a personage than the Executive Vice President In Charge of Litigation, I stuck it in the drawer labeled 'Restraint of Trade' and carried on...

What I wasn't prepared for was the e-mail Jon Davison sent me today: an article reporting that "Universal's embattled execs" were putting their big hairy monster picture on hold, and rushing out a film called REPO MEN.

What?

REPO MEN is definitely not a sequal to my film. I still have a contract with these guys and - if they ever want to make a film based on my original work - they have to ask me to direct it. What fun that would be! But it seems The Studio has, among its souvenirs, a Jude Law thriller called THE REPOSSESSION MAMBO, shot in Canada, almost two years ago. I'm sure this is an excellent film, which Universal accidentally forgot to distribute, and now are passing off, in their innocence, as the new REPO MAN. Only a cynical person might see any attempt to catch the upward draft of REPO CHICK, and give loft to a turkey.

We wrote about Repossession Mambo a lot a couple of years ago, and actually speculated about whether it would cause problems for the smaller, campier musical film Repo! The Genetic Opera. (Remember that one? It had Anthony Stewart Head singing about drugs.)

In any case, Universal has dusted off Mambo and renamed it Repo Men, to try and catch the "repo" wave. Meanwhile, Cox tells the Village Voice he did work on an actual sequel to Repo Man, called Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday, but "Nobody wants to look at Emilio Estevez anyway." Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday was "the further adventures of Otto. Otto had been kidnapped by Martians for ten years and they'd changed his physiognomy and given him a new name. He came back in 1996 with a 1983 mindset, so it was quite difficult for him to fit into the world."

As for Repo Chick, it has nothing to do with Man. Says Cox:

It's entirely a freestanding film about a very wealthy young woman who finds meaning stealing from the middle class and the poor. You wouldn't need to see Repo Man to make sense of it. It's another comedy about the economic crisis. And how the crisis has intensified so much in this round.

And he says the movie is 95 percent greenscreen, except for one "vintage train interior."

If Cox's take on the economic crisis is half as fascinating as Drag Me To Hell, then the suffering of so many homeowners will start to have a bit of an upside. That's if Universal doesn't crush his indie project before it reaches your screens, of course.

Repo Chick image from Danny Aroyo.

Yes, yes, we get the Hilton hate; she's rich, she's superficial, she looked particularly scary in night vision. But we can't shake the feeling that there's something more to everyone's most favorite hated socialite than we give her credit for. This is, after all, the woman who starred as a surgery-addict in Repo The Genetic Opera - not the most obvious, or glamorous, role you'd imagine for her - as well as agreeing to star in a self-depreciating-but-hilarious McCain-baiting Funny or Die video during last year's election madness. Her Supernatural guest spot continues the trend, according to showrunner Eric Kripke:

If anyone ever wanted to see a bloodthirsty Paris attack and kill somebody, this is your chance[. I'm] quite frankly shocked that Paris agreed to do it. We wrote the role just for her... We're very excited that she said yes. She plays the role of a demonic creature that takes the form of... Paris Hilton. If you know our style, you know we go pretty funny and irreverent with this stuff, so—expect that. The fact that she wanted to do the episode speaks volumes about her sense of humor. She's flat-out awesome for playing along. You'll see.

Is there a hidden, self-aware side to Hilton that allows her to play with her own public identity like this, or is she just so desperate for the spotlight that she'll go along with anything as long as it gets her name out there? We're leaning towards the former, but we'll admit it: we're biased towards anyone who did a cameo on Veronica Mars.

'Supernatural' snags Paris Hilton to play 'demonic creature' [Chicago Tribune]

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LexCorp (DC Comics)
Hailed as one of the largest, most diversified multinational corporations in the world, it also happens to be founded by Lex Luthor, who runs it with his characteristic ruthlessness. The list of cities and countries where the corporation has holdings is basically as long as the list of cities and countries on Earth, and the number of companies controlled by LexCorp is almost as long and just as varied. Unfortunately, as of One Year Later, with Lana Lang acting as CEO, the corporation seems to be heading towards bankruptcy. The "No Helping Superman" rule still applies to all employees, however.

Primatech (Heroes)
The Primatech Paper Company of Odessa, Texas is the first Primatech facility the show introduces us to. Of course, they do a lot more than just make paper—They capture and "study" folks with enhanced abilities, but, really, what they do best is operate in a moral gray area. A very dark gray area.

Blue Sun (Firefly and Serenity)
While it's still unclear exactly what the corporation does, it seems pretty implicit that it isn't good. Although most of the Blue Sun products seen on the show seem as innocuous as coffee cans and crackers, River's actions, such as ripping off their labels on food and slashing Jayne with a knife when he wears their logo, suggest that there's something more going on. Some suggest that there's something in the food, but the stronger hypothesis seems to be that Blue Sun is somehow connected to the experiments done on River and is perhaps working with the Alliance.

Merrick Biotech (The Island)
Merrick Biotech's business is keeping clones of their customers around, just in case said customers should need a transplant of some kind. Basically like the ultimate life insurance, right? Except for the fact that it's illegal to allow the clones to be conscious and sentient, which, of course, Merrick Biotech lets happen and lies to their clients about. Therefore, the corporation has an entire population of fully-conscious human beings living totally unaware of the fact that they're basically just an organ farm. And that's just not cool.

Fatboy Industries (The Middleman, TV series)
In the final episode of the series, Wendy Watson is transported into a classic example of a Mirrorverse, where the megacorp of Fatboy Industries is a totalitarian presence, having taken the place of the government. Unfortunately, the morality of Fatboy in Wendy's real world is still unconfirmed, as there's a hint of "more than meets the eye" to both the corporation and its ambiguous founder, Manservant Neville. (This is underscored by the fact that the rest of Mirrorverse turns out to be not so very different from the real world.)

Buy n Large Corporation (WALL•E)
While maybe not inherently evil, the Buy n Large Corporation did govern Earth (perhaps much like the Mirrorverse Fatboy Industries) and did a very poor job of it. Even if rendering the planet uninhabitable wasn't exactly the gameplan, Buy n Large's role in that happening probably makes it a worse corporation than most of the others on this list.

Tyrell Corporation (Blade Runner)
The Tyrell Corporation produces the replicants, lifelike androids designed to the work deemed to dangerous and demeaning for humans, and is named for Dr. Eldon Tyrell, the founder and genius inventor of the replicants. While it's debatable how truly "evil" the Tyrell Corporation is, there is a definite sinister quality to their dealings and it's nigh impossible to deny that they definitely smack of "evil corporation."

Veidt Industries (Watchmen)
A lot of what was said about LexCorp could be repeated here. Once again, the ruthless ambition of the corporation paired with the questionable morality of its founder leaves us wondering how much to trust this (powerful, financially successful) corporation. Meanwhile, the impending release of the film was paired with a Veidt Industries commercial contest, leading to all sorts of fake '80's advertising:

Weyland-Yutani (Alien franchise)
Perhaps the gold standard of evil megacorporations, Weyland-Yutani's main gig is merciless profiteering, no matter what (or who) needs to be sacrificed in the process. (Fun fact: Their logo can be seen on some of the weapons in Firefly and they're said to be a client of Wolfram and Hart in Angel. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that Joss Whedon wrote Alien Resurrection.)

Cyberdyne Systems Corporation (Terminator films)
While the corporation is said to be benign in the first two films, manufacturing parts for bigger companies, they then make the mistake of creating Skynet, a system of artificially intelligent supercomputers that control (among other things) nuclear missiles. This was not a smart move. In fact, it's just un-smart enough to warrant Cyberdyne's inclusion on this list.

Yoyodyne (The Crying of Lot 49 and V. by Thomas Pynchon)
Yoyodyne is a defense contractor that's described in The Crying of Lot 49 as "a giant of the aerospace industry," and a few characters in the novel work for the company. While the morality of Yoyodyne isn't firmly sealed either way, the thread of conspiracy woven throughout the work suggests that it isn't all it seems. (The name "Yoyodyne" is mentioned, as you might remember, in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.)

Earth Protectors (Up, Up, and Away, 2000 TV movie)
Ostensibly a group designed to teach middle schoolers the importance of environmentalism, Earth Protectors' favorite method of persuasion is brainwashing. And while handing out CD's brainwashing kids into recycling isn't a completely bad thing, brainwashing the parents to rob banks is another thing entirely. (Actually, brainwashing in general? Not recommended.)

Omni Consumer Products (Robocop)
Described as dystopian and inhumane, Omni Consumer Products (OCP) is an example of military capitalism taken to the extreme, until the corporation no longer cares who gets hurt or killed as long as the PR stays good. OCP is depicted as having its fingers in almost every branch of life, as long as there's money to be made from it. One of their strokes of genius comes from running both criminal organizations and a private police force, thereby ensuring a continued demand for both crime and justice.

Soylent Corporation (Soylent Green)
It's 2022 and the world is overpopulated and hungry. Who better to step in than the Soylent Corporation with their rations of tasty wafers known as Soylent Red and Soylent Yellow? Well, okay, they aren't that tasty, but thankfully, Soylent's come out with a new flavor: Soylent Green. Much more delicious. So what's the catch? Well, we all know what Soylent Green is.

GeneCo (Repo! The Genetic Opera)
After an epidemic of organ failures, GeneCo steps in to give transplants to those in need. Benevolent, right? Well, sure, until the boss, Rotti Largo, gets permission to repossess the organs of people who renege on their payments. And once a corporation is taking out your insides, the benevolence is kind of gone.

io9: I think Repo!, being a rock opera, is an a category by itself. I'd like to see the opera format come back, to have many more movies like this.
TZ: Well, obviously this is my baby — at least one-half my baby — so I'm in agreement with you. I'd love to see more of this sort of thing, and I think there is a market for it. I just think because it hasn't really been fully done, at least not successfully, people aren't really aware that there is a market for twenty-first century opera.

io9: You've garnered a great internet buzz.
TZ: We're doing great in that regard, at least great by my standards.

io9: The internet has the power to make movies these days — Snakes on a Plane is my major example. I think the web can do a lot.
TZ: It's true. I've watched some of my favorite porn there.

io9: How did your collaboration with [co-writer] Darren Smith start?
TZ: It's been a really long journey from stage to screen. It's kind of hard to fully pinpoint when it went from just being a wacky, fragmented collection of ideas into a cohesive story that is now Repo! But in a nutshell — Darren Smith and I began writing what we call ten-minute operas, and they were ten-minute stories put to music that we would do just as a duo in clubs and coffee shops in L.A. That was in 1999, 2000. And one of those short stories, ultimately, is what grew into Repo! The Genetic Opera. It was called The Necromerchant's Debt, and it was this ten-minute opera about a futuristic graverobber and what this graverobber sees. Basically, he sees the underbelly of society from lurking in the shadows in the graveyard. That concept is what grew into Repo! How we came up with that concept ... ? [laughs] I think what it was is that I've always had a love for the macabre and the occult, so I had this idea for a graverobber. I think I was thinking something along the lines of a Victorian melodrama, and Darren Smith, rightfully so, said, "I've seen this done so many times, this sort of Edgar Allen Poe or Tim Burton take. So why don't we put it in the future?" And so that's sort of how it grew. At the time, Darren Smith also had a friend who was going through a bankruptcy, and a lot of his possessions were in danger of being repossessed. So as we were coming up with ideas for what this graverobber might be seeing in the graveyard, we came up the idea of him witnessing a Repo Man. And in the future, the Repo Man's not just taking your car or your TV — he's literally coming and taking your body parts. So that was the germ of the story.
io9: That's interesting, because I got the feeling from the movie that the Graverobber was sort of the unofficial narrator. He framed the story. Was that intentional?
TZ: Yes, it was. It's sort of ironic how the story has shaped and reshaped itself over the years. When we began the ten-minute operas, just because it was just the two of us, I was acting out the parts and Darren Smith was playing the music. Just by that nature alone, it had a narratorial vibe and aspect to it. And as we expanded the story and added more characters and locations and the whole thing, the Graverobber sort of started to become more worked into the plot, as opposed to this disenfranchised observer. By the time we came around to the finished movie, ironically, it kind of went back to being much closer to what the original short story was.

io9: Were there things that you were really surprised by when you were translating The Necromerchant's Debt? Were there parts that were particularly challenging to adapt?
TZ: The whole thing is difficult. I guess I should say first that the journey from The Necromerchant's Debt to Repo! The Genetic Opera the stage play to Repo! The Genetic Opera the movie was an almost decade-long process. It went from being a two-person show into a full-length play that Darren Smith and I self-produced in L.A. It ran there twice, successfully, and then it got picked up by an off-Broadway theatre company and we took it to New York in 2005. From there, we made a ten-minute Repo short film, which we used to help finance getting the movie made. So the whole process has been one of adaptation. When we knew that it was going to be a movie, when it was a sure thing, we had to re-evaluate a lot of the script. We especially found that one of the major differences, which is a real problem between stage and screen, is that on stage you want to tell everything, and on screen you need to show everything. As such, some of the songs that might have been the biggest hit on the stage — the ones that people called showstoppers — well, the reason they call them that is that you literally stop the show, you stop the action so that people can sing a big number and then the audience will applaud and then you go back into the story. That doesn't work so well in movies. In fact, I've seen a few musical films that have tried to manufacture the place for a curtain call and applause, and it always feels weird. It always feels fake and forced. So some of our best standalone numbers, in my opinion, had to be either cut or trimmed from the film, in order to make a film where the action was driving the plot, as opposed to a bunch of fancy singing.

io9: I guess one of the things that emerged was the graphic novel introductions to the characters. Or was that always there?
TZ: There was always, I think, a comic-book-type vibe to Repo! It's sci-fi, it's set in the future, the characters wear cool, outlandish outfits — and for Christ's sake, it's called Repo! and there are singing graverobbers! I think it always had a comic-book graphic quality with it. But when it came to the movie, we had a couple of things going against us right off the bat, and the main one was budget. We were attempting to do an opera, which of course is supposed to be grand and big, and it's all singing, which presents a whole new level of complication in terms of how you can edit, choreography, all that stuff. So a lot of the reason comic books became a real option is that we didn't have the money to shoot everything we wanted. That said, I think it was one of those happy accidents where the role of the comics kept growing. And if you think about traditional opera, the type our parents — or somebody's parents — might have liked, every one of those comes with a program or a playbill. So when you see it, you actually have in front of you an entire detailed synopsis of the play. You know who dies, you know what happens, right from the get-go. It's not a surprise. You're just there to enjoy the opera aspect, to enjoy the music, and you're not necessarily trying to follow along. Even if they were singing in perfect clear English and they over-enunciated every word, you still wouldn't catch it all on the first listen. You're absorbed by the music and the visuals. So I look at the comics as though they're almost like a twenty-first century version of an operatic playbill.

io9: I really liked them.
TZ: I fuckin' like 'em too!

io9: You're working on a graphic novel of your own right now. Was doing those bits for Repo! what got you into comics, or were you always into comics?
TZ: I don't know if I was necessarily always into comics, as such. I've become a real fan of the graphic novel medium in the last few years — and ironically, more for the writing than the drawing. That said, I think it's best when you get both. My background is actually in illustration. That's what I went to school for, that's how I earned my living ... pretty much up until Repo! I did storyboards for movies and advertising. I actually worked in animation for two years, as a board artist. My background has always been in the visual arts, and Repo! has been an amazing vehicle for me to get to showcase a little bit of a lot of talents. Every one of those talents, though, whether it's drawing or writing or singing — they all come down to hopefully being able to tell a good story. As an illustrator, I always try to have pictures that set up some sort of drama, or create the idea for some sort of narrative, whether it's explicit or abstract. For me, drawing is very much about telling a story; writing is obviously about telling a story; performing is about telling a story. That's what drives me. A lot of people have asked me, "What do you like more?" and I'm like, "I don't know! I like storytelling!" But the reason I'm interested in working on a graphic novel right now is partly related to the whole experience I had with making Repo! It's been so overwhelming and so long — not just making the film, which has its own huge struggle, but there were years of trying to get it off the ground as a play. By the nature of what it is, you have to involve tons of people. And that's great in many ways, you know, you have collaborators, you have partners, you have cast members and crew members and all this. But I think it's been so many years of working in that sort of art by committee that I'm really interested in my next piece — or at least one of my next pieces — being a little bit more small, a bit more of a singular voice, a unique vision. I think the graphic novel medium is really good for that.
io9: How much did you work with the cinematographer to fashion the visual look of the film? I didn't get to see the stage play, so I don't know how it looked before, but it looked really different compared to other movies. How much did you get to work on that?
TZ: My experience on Repo!, as far as I know from everyone that I've spoken with who is a writer or director or producer, has been rare. For one, it's rare to get a gothic opera financed; somehow I managed to do that. [laughs] Beyond that, it's rare that any writer has as much creative involvement as I did with Repo! I've been involved from the get-go and I'm still involved today; literally, just before you called I was preparing some images to send to a magazine, and I've kind of been doing a little bit of everything, from helping to promote the film, to drawing pictures — everything. We worked with some really, really talented people that clearly brought a lot to the world of Repo! that wasn't there before. Joe White is our cinematographer, and David Hackl, who has now gone on to become a director himself, was our production designer, and Harvey Rosenstock was our editor. Repo! had such a long life on the stage, and existed for much longer than most movies ever do in a visual sense — you know, a script might be floating around for years, but not necessarily a script with actors attached and costumes that have been made and photos of sets. When I came on set initially and met the entire production crew, it was actually really awesome how much reverence they were giving to the artwork that had already been created. I'd go into, for example, the costume designer's office — Alex Kavanagh, who's amazing — and she'd have all these images from my old stage play sketchbooks taped up on the walls. They were treating it almost as though it was the Bible. That's not to say they didn't add to it, because they did, and it most cases they really improved upon whatever my initial concept was. It was so cool to see. They could have come in and said, "Screw these guys! Who are they?! They did some cheap black-box theatre play. I'm going to go in and redesign everything." They didn't do that. They treated it with a lot of respect and looked at it as a starting point, as opposed to something to just disregard.

io9: Did you get that same feeling from the actors? You worked with a lot of people I consider famous, like Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton — did you get to see what they thought of Repo! and the whole idea of a rock opera dystopia?
TZ: I consider them famous, too! There were moments, of course, when I'd have my geeking out. On the one hand, I was a collaborator with them, as a performer, but on the other hand, I was in a managerial-type role, as a creator. You want to maintain an air of professionalism, but there were plenty of days where I was just kind of like, "I'm going to excuse myself for a minute and go geek out in the bathroom." And come back and be cool. But everybody that got involved with Repo! the movie — and honestly, as far back as I can remember — has always gotten involved with the project because they got the project. Everyone that signed up for what we were doing knew what they were getting into, and as such they embraced it. Now that's not to say that everybody didn't bring a lot of themselves to each of the roles and modify what might have been exactly on the page, but everyone was really reverential towards the source material. We didn't have any actors coming and saying, "You know what? I'm kind of moonlighting as a singer-songwriter. Can we just throw away this 'Legal Assassin' song and put in my own little pop jam?" Nobody did that. Nobody came in with that diva nonsense. Everybody understood they were doing an opera, which meant it wasn't just a mashup of songs, like an MTV lineup. It really was an opera; it was a twenty-first century opera. The fact that everybody got involved for very little money bespoke the fact that they were onboard for the fact that we were doing something different, we were doing something culty, and they liked it. They embraced it.

io9: As far as Lionsgate dropping out of promoting the film — was that because they were nervous because it was different? What was their concern?
TZ: It's unfortunate. And I should also say that they're not necessarily the bad guys right now; they just don't believe the market for Repo! is as big as we do. So our job, and the job of people who see the movie and like it, is to talk about it and show them, "No, no, no — I'm a real ticket-buying member of the public, and I like what you're doing. And I want to patronize it. And I want to buy Halloween costumes. And I want to buy the soundtrack. I want to buy the Repo comic book, if it ever comes out!" One of the eye-opening things for me was that as we were making the movie, I had no idea about the separation between the producers of the film and the distributors of the film. They're two completely different entities, and they don't necessarily come at the project in the same way, and they don't necessarily even consult with each other. All along, before I had made a movie, I always just thought, "Oh yeah, producers! They do everything!" We had a group of producers, Twisted Pictures, who for the most part financed the movie, financed the making of the movie, were involved with the creative building and editing and the final product, and then once that was done, they were basically done. Now it got handed over to Lionsgate, who — while they were involved with the production — were involved in a much more limited way. And their job is not to make movies; their job is to sell movies. And they looked at it and they said, "Okaaaay." Even Rocky Horror, which I love and which a lot of people compare Repo! to, was a box-office failure when it came out. It did horribly. It wasn't until years later that it caught on with the whole midnight-movie thing. I think they just looked at what we had, and maybe they were assuming we might have done something more along the lines of Dreamgirls [laughs] or even Sweeney Todd. And then we come and give them this trashy culty twenty-first century opera, and you know, I almost don't even blame them. They kind of went, "Well, what the fuck do you want us to do with this?" When that happened, I was pretty mortified. I thought the hardest thing was going to be getting the movie made, and getting it made well. I had no idea that now getting it actually seen by people was going to be one of our biggest battles. So when they said, "There's not a market for this. There's a niche group of weirdos that'll enjoy this. Otherwise no one will like it, you're going to be ridiculed by the press, and it's a straight-to-DVD movie." And of course, that was a huge blow. I thought, "Oh, well, shit. Is that true?" After years of making it, and after looking at the end result and being happy with it ... I know plenty of writers who get something made, who see it, and who say "I don't like it at all, that's not my original vision." Thankfully that's not the case for me with Repo! Anyway, even though that was a blow to my ego, and to the two Darrens' egos, we of our own volition entered Repo! in a couple of festivals, and we'd sit there with a real audience. And we realized: Maybe they're wrong! These real audiences were eating it up. Every festival that we've gone to we've sold out, with people angry that they can't get in. We've had people coming to these things dressed up as the characters ... to a movie they haven't even seen yet! I think it's awesome, because when does that happen? I talked to someone from Lionsgate about this who had been at the company for fifteen years or something, and he told me, "You know, there's never been a Lionsgate movie that I've been involved in where anyone has dressed up as the characters — certainly not beforehand." The closest thing they had was Saw, and people didn't even dress up as Saw characters until Saw III, when the company started actually licensing Halloween outfits. It wasn't people going, "Hmm, I saw a trailer on a website, and I'm going to go into my laboratory and construct my own Amber Sweet outfit." This Halloween, I've probably gotten fifty separate MySpace messages from fans who made their own Repo! costumes. And I mean, they're elaborate. There were three or four Repo Men — they actually made the Repo Man outfit, with the light in the helmet and the whole thing. That's not easy! I wouldn't know how to do that! So the point is, I think we appeal to a group of people who are hungry for more than just your typical moviegoing experience. They're hungry for something that feels like an event, that feels like a community — in the way that I think Rocky Horror appealed to people. I think that they're at least projecting that on Repo! Now, will we live up to that, in the end result? I hope so.

io9: You mention people hungering for more of this type of entertainment. Is there anything that influenced you while you were writing Repo!, something that you think everyone should have seen or read if they're a fan of this kind of stuff?
TZ: I think probably one of my favorite — I guess you can call it a rock opera, although technically it's more of a rock musical — of late is Hedwig and the Angry Inch. I think that's a wonderful movie and play — in fact, in many ways it's a better play than a movie. What I really like about Hedwig and the Angry Inch is that I think it has a lot of the fun, camp, cult, draggy, trashy element that movies like Rocky Horror or Moulin Rouge or Repo! have, but it has something, I think, more than what Rocky does, for example. It has this story revolving around a character that on face value, seems like someone that most people would never be able to relate to. I mean, most people don't walk through life with a botched sex change operation! But yet, when I watched it, I got choked up. I cared for that character, I rooted for that character, I sympathized with that character. So when we were doing Repo! — even though Repo! is nothing like Hedwig except for the fact there's music involved — Darren Smith and I were really interested in trying to have all the camp and fun and the spectacle that you see in a lot of musicals and operas, but to try to have a human story with real heart and real emotion at the center of it.
io9: I have one final kind of funny question. Do you think it's likely that this dystopian future will come to pass and that we might, in the future, have the whole organs-becoming-currency thing? And if so, would you be more of a Zydrate addict or a Repo Man? Where would you be in that society?
TZ: I'd be a scalpel slut!

io9: Nice.
TZ: I'd be a Gentern, if I could fit in the costume. [laughs] Well, that's a great question, and when Darren Smith and I were researching and doing the writing of Repo!, we actually had some really cool interviews and some cool stories we found with surgeons and transplant doctors. We just studied what's really out there. The reality is, a lot of what's happening in Repo! isn't as far-fetched as it may seem. And certainly, perhaps not that far off in the future. Organs are used as currency. Maybe not at Walmart, but there is a market around body parts — and ironically, right now, at least in the States, the only people that don't profit from organ donations are the actual donors. Everyone else literally makes a killing off of it. And in other countries, there are tons of stories, in South America, for example, of people who are selling, like, a kidney to fat rich Americans. And they're doing it for a price that you'd be kind of like — "Woah, you're losing a kidney for just, you know, a Whopper combo super-sized? That's pretty intense." And even recently, the Chinese government, which has denied it for ages, came clean on the fact that they had been in many cases executing prisoners and then taking their organs and selling them again to rich, fat Americans. So I don't think it's that far off. Do I ever think that Big Brother's going to come in and actually on-the-books sanction murder? I don't think so. But do I think that there's perhaps a lot of social commentary and satire in what we're doing? Yes, that was definitely intentional. But in terms of what I would be in that future ... aw, jeez. I think I'd be a graverobber. I wrote that character for myself and it's definitely a big part of my life and my personality, not just in the fact that I've been doing it for so long, that it feels like — but I think that what really is appealing to me about that character is the fact that he is kind of like the bastard son, you know, he's very much like a Shakespearean archetype in that he witnesses and he can clearly see what's wrong, and in many cases what's right, with the picture. But he doesn't get caught up in it. He's outside of it. He's like, "You know what, you guys have your own dramas, you have your own families, the laws are fucked up, and I'm not going to get involved. I'm just going to watch from the sidelines and I'm going to take care of me." That sort of character appeals to me. I suppose if the choice was either going under the knife to perfect my image (and being repossessed) or actually being forced to repossessed organs almost like as a mercenary, I'd rather be on the sidelines just watching.

io9: What got me about the story was what you mentioned, the social commentary on the whole crazy world of body image and perfection.
TZ: Well, one of the things that made me realize we were on the right path with the story is that maybe four years ago, I was teaching art at a small private little art school in Calabasas, California. The school was in kind of a popular area; there was a little shopping plaza there. At the end of the shopping plaza was what I always thought was a spa. It was a private art school, so obviously my students, my clientele, were often times wealthy people — and more often than not, unfortunately, they were kind of like single, kept mothers who would pay sitters to take their kids to and from while they "got their nails did" and whatever else. And they'd often go to this spa. And I thought they were there just getting the massages, getting some sort of oil treatment, maybe getting a tan. What I didn't realize was that they were really going in there and getting plastic surgery. I walked by one day and there were little balloons up and little fucking cookies and stuff to grab, you know, and I said, "Oh, what's going on? Are you guys having a sale or something?" This group of women looked at me with a straight face — there was no irony in what they were saying — and they were like, "No, no, we're having a Botox party!" I was just like "Hooooly" — what do you say to that? "I didn't get the invitation."

Repo! screencaps by Amber Loves Zydrate at Repo-Opera.com.

Repo-Opera.com
TerranceZdunich.com

What first attracted me to the film was Anthony Stewart Head, also known as too-sexy-for-his-age Watcher/librarian Giles of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Head lent spectacular and commanding vocals to that series' status-quo-busting musical episode, and he's quite fit to be the lead tenor here as the eponymous Repo Man who steals organs from the poor to give to the rich.

He's also the loving yet unsettling father to sweet, sick Shilo Wallace (Alexa Vega). The drama between father and daughter is at the heart of the show, set against the backdrop of a frightening future where health care is so dire that massive conglomerate GeneCo is out to rip the bloody viscera from the chests of anyone who can't front their bills. Among the many screaming denizens of this dystopia, Vega and Head are the talented, charismatic duo that hold this bewildering movie opera together.

Repo! grew out of a ten-minute stage show in 1999, and it's picked up lots of plot along the way: Each character comes with oodles of sizzling backstory and a few racy graphic novel panels that serve as explanation. There's a lot to keep track of here, meaning that devoted fans will have excess material by the boatload to pore over when all is said and done. Appearances by Sarah Brightman and Paul Sorvino lend significant vocal cred to the ensemble, and Terrance Zdunich's creepy Graverobber is the perfect de facto narrator. These five (Vega, Head, Brightman, Sorvino, and Zdunich) are probably the only sympathetic characters here – the only ones to whom the film has time enough to lend a bit of complexity. As for Paris Hilton, if you close your eyes and think of England, she goes away soon enough.

The look of the film is pretty much what you'd expect. The cinematography is heavy with highlights and shadows – Repo!'s landscape uses light only to emphasize the dark, and its indulgent sweeps of a grimy, holographic future city will be a delight to anyone who thrilled at Blade Runner. Of course Victorian goth suffuses every costume. It's no surprise that people were ready with Repo! outfits this Halloween, before the movie even came out. Plus, it features a cool new futuristic drug – the painkilling Zydrate, which can be extracted easily from fresh corpses.

There are simplistic though mildly insightful one-liners – "Why is genetics such a bitch?" croons Vega as Shilo, the girl with the seemingly incurable blood disease. Though it might not achieve the same critical acclaim, it has the Rocky Horror geek perv vibe: Repo is an overwhelmingly odd, shockingly sexual, rocked-out celebration of all that is gory and scary and alive.

So if you've already been keeping an eye on the publicity and feeling a tingle in your throat, trust me, Repo! delivers. It may not be polished or genius, but it's fun – and Hollywood could use a bit of crazy, idea-filled fandom, if you ask me. But if the idea of watching naked women get slashed open to song in a world of corruption and despair – yeah, those parts were not so fun and idea-filled, as Fantasy Magazine pointed out. So if naked gore is a dealbreaker, stick to rewatching Chicago and The Matrix back-to-back this holiday season. For the rest, it's time to shoot some Zydrate and get ready to rock.

After the third time I saw Blind Mag's dead eyes projecting Shiloh's mom in front of her I gotta say, I'm a little addicted, and I thought the Zydrate ditty was catchy. The musical is released this week in theaters on November 7.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

A new Transformers 2 tie-in book listed for sale at Borders is called The Last Prime. Who's the "last Prime" and what does he/she/it have to do with the movie? [TFW2005]

Repo! The Genetic Opera:

So you already knew this gothy musical was about a world where people get replacement organs and have to pay for them on credit, and everyone's a surgery junkie who loves the buzz from surgical drugs. Right? But did you know about the movie's twisty family dramas? Now you do:

One young girl named Shilo (Alexa Vega from Spy Kids) is looking for a cure to her disease in a world full of surgery addicts and illegal drugs, much to the chagrin of her overprotective father Nathan (Anthony Stewart Head) (who also happens to secretly be GeneCo's top Repo Man). Meanwhile, the head of GeneCo, Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), is dying and he has to contend with his squabbling children, Luigi (Bill Moseley), Pavi (Ogre from Skinny Puppy) and Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton), all who have their own personal organ fetishes.

[ShockTillYouDrop]

Lost:

As we mentioned, Locke gets into a car crash... and it involves two other cars, all with Oregon license plates. Besides this smash-up, there's also a big car stunt that involves a car rolling over. [Tim Ryan's Reel Hawaii]

Here are some more pics of the scene from photo service X17. [X17]

And there's some speculation that episode four, "The Little Prince," centers around Desmond, as a marooned sailor, just like in the story of that title. [SpoilersLost]

Chuck:

Here are a couple of clips from next Monday's episode of Chuck, where he meets his ex-girlfriend. And she's involved with spy stuff! What are the odds? [Zachary-Levi]
And in Monday's episode, Mark Pellegrino plays a Fulcrum agent. And there'll be a pillow fight between Sarah and Chuck's ex, Jill. [E! Online]
 

Heroes:

Rumor has it that Hiro Nakamura will die sometime before the end of the season — probably during the "Fugitives" arc. That would get rid of the show's annoying time travel escape clause, except that Peter can still do it. In any case, it's just a rumor for now, but Tim Kring has hinted that a major character won't make it to the end of the season. [Heroes News And Spoilers]

Here are a couple new promos for Monday's episode, which show off a bit more of the flashback storyline. The second clip also includes a bit of chuck footage.

It's not just Elle that turned Gabriel into the serial-killing Sylar — HRG had a role in it as well, we'll find out in next Monday's episode. [E! Online]

How frantically will our heroes be running in the new "Fugitives" storyline? Just look at this set picture of Claire. [Heroes Spoilers]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

In episode 15, we'll meet the McCracken family. They include George McCracken, the father, who's tough and intense and has "a gun and a secret." He may be a recurring character. And then there's Diana McCracken, a recent widow who's harboring her own secret. Zoe McCracken is a "smart but not brainy" teenager who's rebellious, but not over the top.

Also in that episode, we'll meet Henry Douglas, an 18-year-old nice guy who always finishes last, and all the girls view him as a friend. Then there's a mourner, who's emotional but comforted by faith, and a minister who has an inspirational quality to him. And finally, Stella, a woman in her 40s who says what's on her mind. [SpoilerTV]

Life On Mars:

Sam is starting to realize there might be a reason why he's trapped in 1973, of all years. (It has to do with his parents, and stuff that happened that year.) [E! Online again]

Knight Rider:

You know what would make this smart-car series way more exciting? A whole storyline where they leave the car behind. Yeah! In any case, KR filmed in Hawaii recently, with Mike Tracer and Sarah Graiman, but no KITT. Apparently it's a whole sequence where Mike and Sarah go to Hawaii to recover from a "personal tragedy" and de-stress. Sounds great! [Knight Rider Online]

Smallville:

Writer Geoff Johns blogged from the set of Smallville's upcoming Legion of Super Heroes storyline, now filming. A few bits: Star Tom Welling came up with an addition to the Legion code that's awesome. The Legion has flight rings, as you'd expect. The villain is a "he" and has a kewl weapon. [OSCK]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

Warner Bros. sent us a couple of pics from Friday's new episode, where R2D2 gets captured in a battle and Anakin has to get him back before the Seps access the Republic secrets hidden in his memory banks. Pretty images! [Warner Bros.]

Sanctuary:

Here are some pics from episode seven, "The Five." [SpoilerTV]

True Blood:

The murderer is someone we previously thought was sweet and caring. And Sookie had better watch her back, because the killer is coming for her next. [Zap2It]

Supernatural:

And finally, here are some casting sides for "Young Charlie," a character introduced in episode 4x12, "Criss Angel Is A Douchebag." (Yes, that's really the title according to the casting site.)

[Repo]

Repo the Genetic Opera takes place in a dystopian future where the masses depend on one company to replace their failing organs — just don't miss a payment or they'll rip it right out of you. Check out the picks and listen to the Repo soundtrack at the movie's Myspace page Myspace page. Repo will have a small release on November 7th.

The Day The Earth Stood Still:

UGO has a roundup of spoilers for this remake of the classic first-contact movie, mostly stuff we've reported before, or which you can glean from watching the footage we've posted. A few new tidbits: Jaden Smith is actually Jennifer Connelly's stepson, not her son. And Klaatu's people use machines with a biological basis, not a mechanical one. And the new version won't have quite such an obvious Christ metaphor as the original. Also, the longer Klaatu spends trapped in a human body, the more conflicted he feels because he realizes the humans aren't so bad. [UGO]

City Of Ember:

The new movie of Jeanne DuPrau's classic novel stays pretty close to the original story, with a few minor changes. For example, the movie adds a new character, Sul (Martin Laundau), a guy who knows all about Ember's inner workings. [Sci Fi Wire]

Repo! The Genetic Opera:

Curious about how the dark futuristic organ-repossession musical came to be? Here's a new behind-the-scenes video. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Lost:

Doug Hutchison says he's back for at least four episodes as hippie Dharma Initiative member Horace Goodspeed on Lost this season. [Sci Fi Wire]

Also, we won't see Jin at all in the first three episodes of the new season, and we'll learn his fate in episodes four and five. And it turns out he's the guy who turns up, floating on a door in the middle of the ocean. But is he alive or dead? Will he be in the show as a ghost? No clue yet. [E! Online]

Battlestar Galactica:

I read this post at SyFyPortal the other day, but somehow I totally missed this somewhat dubious spoiler, which a source told the site. Apparently our heroes did find Earth in the mid-season finale, but after the Cylons wrecked Earth in their nuclear catastrophe, they moved on to another planet, also called Earth. And that's the planet that you are (most likely) sitting on as you read this. The rest of the series will be about the fleet searching for this second Earth. [SyFyPortal]

Heroes:

Tracy will embrace her ice powers instead of freaking out about them. Also, after Matt sees a bunch of paintings in Africa of his past events, he sees a couple of paintings of things that haven't happened to him yet. And Matt has some really cool scenes with Daphne the speedster. And Matt still might go to the dark side, like his dad. [Heroes Spoilers]

Hiro and Ando go down to the Company's sinister Level 5, but not of their own free will. Also, when we see Elle again, we'll find out her electrical power is on the fritz, and she turns to Claire for help. [E! Online]

In that upcoming episode where Future Sylar is living in the Bennett house and has a kid named Noah, it turns out Sylar also has Mr. Muggles. And there may be waffle-making. Also we may see several different alternate realities in that episode. And Dr. Zimmerman has some answers for Tracy Strauss, and it turns out another one of the Ali Larter clones may actually be running around as well. (Or maybe we'll just see her corpse?) [E! Online again]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

We got another press release from Warner Bros. about this Friday's upcoming season premiere, and it noted that the "Yoda episode" sees a mixture of the impish mischievous Yoda from Empire Strikes Back, and the bouncy ninja Yoda from the prequels. And here are some new pics. [Warner Bros. and Los Angeles Metromix]

Smallville:

In the Chloe/Jimmy wedding episode, Ollie can't be there, because he's in a more interesting episode — I mean, he's off on a mission as Green Arrow. Clark and Lois make "video messages" to cooperate Chloe and Jimmy, and Chloe and Clark dance at the wedding reception. And then in the following episode, Geoff Johns' Legion of Superheroes romp, Johns says he was suprised by what prominent Legion villain he was allowed to use. (Mordru? Time Trapper? Darkseid? Ooh, maybe Lemnos!) [Kryptonsite]

Sarah Connor Chronicles:

John Connor is totally focused on Riley the magazine-quoting girl, instead of Cameron, this season. Also, episode five of this season is a big turning point in the John-Derek relationship. [E! Online]

Chuck:

More about that upcoming episode ("Chuck vs. The Best Friend") where we see Chuck and Morgan aged 12: apparently a female bully wants to wail on Morgan in revenge for his spying on her, but Chuck stands up for his pal. Chuck and Morgan lament their girlfriend-less states and promise they'll have girlfriends when they're older. Morgan says he'll have a beard, and that'll totally help. Then, in the present day, a bearded Morgan still laments his girlfriend-lessness, now that Anna is dating a guy named Jason. Turns out Jason is connected with a Triad (Chinese organized crime group), and Chuck has to go undercover at Jason's car showroom along with Sarah. Unfortunately, Morgan wants to tag along and spy on Anna. And when they get caught, Chuck saves Morgan's life by convincing the Triad members that Morgan isn't spying on them, he's just a loser stalking his ex-girlfriend. Morgan feels betrayed, but Chuck doesn't have time to patch things up, because the Triad members are targeting an ambassador. Meanwhile, Jeff and Lester also have strains in their relationship. [ChuckTV]

Chuck and Sarah really won't be getting together any time soon. And Zachary Levi wrote a song about how bad he smells. [E! Online]

Here's the synopsis for the fourth episode, "Chuck vs. The Cougars":

Chuck (Zachary Levi) learns more about Sarah’s (Yvonne Strahovski) past when they run into her old high school nemesis Heather Chandler (guest star Nicole Richie). Sarah’s teenage insecurities come to surface and she tries to avoid Heather at all costs. Chuck, on the other hand, does everything he can to hear more about Sarah’s hidden life. When Heather’s nerdy husband Mark (Ben Savage) turns out to be a key player in a new mission, the agents must attend Sarah’s high school reunion to prevent the sale of potentially dangerous super-bomber plans — all the action ends with the ultimate cat fight. Meanwhile, Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence) leaves town for a day and Buy More’s new assistant manager Lester (Vik Sahay) decides to implement a new sales policy.

Have you noticed how every episode synopsis is like, "there's a guest star who has a personal connection to someone on the show, but he/she is also tied up in spy shit. And meanwhile, stuff happens at Buy More"? [SpoilerTV]

Stargate Atlantis:

In episode 14, "Prodigal," Michael finds his way into Atlantis and tries to gather as much information as possible, while the crew tries to keep him from getting to Teyla's child. And in episode 15, "Remnants," a long-lost race has sent out repositories of themselves and their knowledge before they were destroyed. Woolsey and Sheppard see visions of their dreams and fears because of these repositories. (This is the one we featured some details from ages ago, where Woolsey gets an imaginary girlfriend.) [SpoilerFix]

Eleventh Hour:

In the second episode of Jerry Bruckheimer's "Hey science! Stop being mean!" show, Jacob Hood investigates when several healthy 11-year-old boys die of heart attacks. It's up to him to prevent further deaths. [SpoilerTV]

Knight Rider:

Here's the press release for the fifth episode of your favorite show, "I Wanna Rock And Roll All Knight":

A CRIMINAL COUPLE WITH CONGRESSIONAL TIES THREATENS TO REVEAL THE SECRETS OF KNIGHT INDUSTRIES — Knight Industries is hot on the trail of a Bonnie & Clyde-esque criminal couple, only to discover their true identities have a serious impact on a national congressional race. As the mission unfolds, Mike (Justin Bruening) and KITT (voiced by Val Kilmer) are forced into action to save Agent Rivai (Sydney Tamiia Poitier).

[SpoilerTV]

On September 30 you can digitally download the entire Repo! Opera soundtrack (but for a price). Lionsgate has a sampling up of the tracks and you can purchase the soundtrack at Repo!'s official site.

Repo! follows the story of a man hired to do the dirty work for a future corporation, Genco, who loans out organs (human organ failure being the number one killer of future humans). But when you miss a payment, Genco sends out the repo man to get its product back. Which is why Paris needs to look so hot. Wait, did that make sense?

Terminator 4:

Still wondering what the deal is with Marcus, the mysterious character played by Sam Worthington in Terminator: Salvation? Maybe this will help. Worthington says Marcus is sort of like Alice from Alice In Wonderland, or Dorothy from the Wizard Of Oz. "That's how I look at him,'' Worthington says. "He wakes up in this world he doesn't know and he goes searching to try and find answers and find his way home." [AdelaideNow]

Watchmen:

Not much of a spoiler if you've read the graphic novel, but in the Watchmen movie there's a brutal scene where the Comedian tries to rape the Silk Spectre, and is only stopped due to the intervention of another hero, Hooded Justice. This scene has to be in the movie because it sets up everything that happens later with the Silk Spectre, says actor Carla Gugino, including her retirement from crimefighting, her self-image as a sex-symbol, and her second, consensual sexual encounter with the Comedian later. [MTV]

Repo! The Genetic Opera:

Annoyed they're remaking Rocky Horror? Well, here's a new clip from a movie that wants to be Rocky Horror but isn't a remake. It features Anthony Stewart Head as the organ-repossession guy, and his angsty teen daughter Shilo.

Virtuality:

Sci Fi Wire got to visit the sets for Ron Moore's new backdoor pilot about deep-space astronauts who escape into virtual reality, Virtuality. A few new tidbits: the crew wears gray uniforms that look like workout clothes, and underneath they have street wear, which mostly consists of T-shirts with the names of colleges on them. There's one main set, a space module, which can be redressed to be different places on the starship Phaeton, and it resembles a "mall common area" crossed with the International Space Station. And since the Phaeton astronauts are also starring in a reality TV show to help pay for their voyage, they're going to shoot some reality-ish "webisodes" at the same time as the TV movie/pilot. There's a lot of improv in their performances. [Sci Fi Wire]

Sarah Connor Chronicles:

I don't think we've reported this info before. Following the massacre of tons of his FBI agents (in that awesome Johnny Cash-laced swimming pool scene) Agent Ellison apparently leaves the FBI. He's no longer in the mode of searching for answers, instead he's looking for payback against the bastard who killed his people — but that's kind of a tall order, against a Terminator. Also, he takes a job working for Shirley Manson on her Babylon project, which is a name that could make a good Christian man like Ellison uncomfortable.

Also, it looks as though the mobster Sarkasian attacks the Connor house soon after his car-bomb has blown up Cameron, at the start of season two. And promos and early promo images show what appears to be Sarkasian's dead body, so don't get too attached to him. [Firefox and Firefox]

And here are some jazzy new promo pics. [SpoilerTV and GrrrlTV]

Doctor Who:

Blogtor Who has a summary of rumors about the 2009 Doctor Who specials, most of which I think we've covered before. Sea Devils, Brian Blessed, Paul McGann, The Master, Donna, Wilf, Doctor's Daughter — everybody's coming back, supposedly. One rumor we haven't mentioned before: a new "Children In Need" skit, featuring past Doctors Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy. Grain of salt, as always. [Blogtor Who]

Lost:

Lost is having an unprecedented "open casting call" for anyone who wants to be in the show. In other words, they're not casting particular roles, just whoever shows up and wants to be an island person. (I'm assuming this isn't just extras.) What does it mean? Maybe the show is seeking a bunch of members of the Dharma Initiative, who are supposed to be a major part of season five. Also, a close look at "Jeremy Bentham"'s obituary reveals he had a son. Did Locke get lucky after he left the island? [Doc Arzt]

Meanwhile, Lost isn't just having random casting calls — it's also specifically seeking an actor to play Dan, a high-priced attorney with a real menace lurking below the surface. It's speculated that Dan is Charles Widmore's dirty-deeds guy, who handles his alliance with Sun. [EW]

And episode 2 of the new Lost season features two new characters: Nigel, a British kid in his late teens, who's smart and mature for his age, but a bit "rough around the edges." And Sophie, an aristocratic Brit, also in her late teens, who seems innocent and prim, but is really formidable underneath. [Spoilers Lost]

The Middleman:

Here's a brief synopsis for the Middleman's season finale, which airs Sept. 1: "The duo take on the evil Palindrome, a super-villain who kidnaps Wendy and transports her to a parallel universe." That would presumably be the parallel universe we showed you photos of a while back. [TV Rage]

Life On Mars:

Here are a few new set pics from the filming of the head-injury-time-travel cop show. [Crazy Days And Nights and Spoiler TV and OnLocationVacation]

Chuck:

Here's a new description for season two, episode nine of the nerd-spy show:

As Ellie and Awesome’s wedding approaches, we finally meet Awesome’s parents - Woody and Honey Woodcomb. They’re both doctors and just as fit and athletic and awesome as, well, Awesome. Honey is over the moon about the wedding and wants to help Ellie plan it much to her…delight? After all, who wouldn’t want to register for wedding gifts at the Buy More and call their in-laws “Mom” and “Dad”?

Meanwhile, Casey’s former sensei, now gone rogue, is involved with a weapons theft and Team Bartowski has to stop him using Casey’s personal knowledge of the man. If Casey had feelings, he’d be furious over the man’s treachery. If he had feelings, he be unleashing hell on his former mentor.

[ChuckTV]

Heroes:

It looks like Heroes will be delving more into the past of its mysterious character known only as the Haitian. At least, the show put out a call for two menacing Haitian militia men, who must speak French but may or may not have speaking roles. They'll appear in episode 11 of the new season. [Spoiler TV]

Knight Rider:

Remember how this version of KITT is sort of a Transformer? Oh good. Then here's a new video that shows KITT transforming into "attack mode." [Knight Rider Online]

Also, the sixth episode of the show will be called "I Wanna Rock And Roll All Night." (Not "All Knight"?) [SpoilerTV]

Spooks: Code 9:

Here are some new stills of the "Doctor's daughter," Georgia Moffett, from the third episode of Spooks: Code 9, the BBC show about pretty young people who become the thuggish (but cute!) secret police of a new post-apocalyptic Britain. [Blogtor Who]

True Blood:

Here's a new trailer for the vampires-and-synthetic blood epic on HBO. [Anna Paquin]

And here are some new promo stills of the cast. [True Blood]

Stargate Atlantis:

Gateworld has detailed descriptions of four upcoming SGA episodes. In "The Shrine," Sheppard, McKay, Teyla and Ronon are searching for a missing research team, when they find themselves in a flooded valley with only the top of the gate visible. They hang on for dear life waiting for a puddle-jumper to rescue them. But flying back to Atlantis, McKay becomes ill and it turns out he has a brain parasite that can't be removed, which is causing to forget everything and regress to boyhood. Keller summons McKay's sister to be with him, but it's too late — he no longer recognizes anyone. Ronon suggests a desperate measure: a shrine on the planet Talus could grant McKay one last day of being himself, before he dies.

And in "Whispers," Dr. Beckett goes with Sheppard to investigate one of Michael's labs, where they find evidence that Michael was experimenting on the genetic characteristics of various life forms. Sheppard takes a team to explore a nearby village, which appears to be abandoned. Except that the chilling walls of fog, and flashes of movement, suggest they're not alone there.

In "The Queen," Dr. Keller believes she's found a way to cure the Wraith of their need to feed on humans, thanks to Michael's genetic research. But she needs some Wraith as test subjects. The Atlantis team approaches Todd, a Wraith, with this proposition, but he says they must first win the support of the Wraith Queen. Teyla has to go under cover, relying on her Wraith DNA and an ally with a hidden agenda.

And in "The Tracker," Jewel Staite's Keller is — gasp! — captured and tied up in the forest. She's treating a child in a village and tells Ronon and McKay to wait for her in the nearby tavern. But then she goes missing, and both men search for her, with McKay also calling for help. When four hunter Wraith turn up, Ronon suspects it's linked to Keller's disappearance since the hunters exist to chase Runners. Ronon must rely on his own Runner skills if he's to find Keller. [Gateworld]

Terminator Salvation:

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger saw a bunch of footage from Terminator 4, but it left him puzzled, mostly because he couldn't tell who the Terminator was in the film. Said Arnie:

I still don't know how it will play out with this one... They showed me some footage, but I don't have a feel for the movie. I didn't see enough. I wasn't sure who the Terminator was. I don't know if there is one or if he's the star or the hero. These are the things that determine the success and how the strong the movie will be.

[L.A. Times]

Tr2n:

In the Tron sequel, it appears from the trailer that the "crack" in the game-grid wall remains after all these years, and other players are using it. A new Sark program would know where the "crack" is, and that's why he's able to head off his opponent so easily. Also, the new "deadly disks" appear to be slimmer than the original versions, maybe because processing capacity has improved, so you can get more disk for your buck in a smaller space. [UGO]

Repo! The Genetic Opera:

Here's a new behind the scenes featurette for Repo! The Genetic Opera, focusing on the song "Mark It Up," which introduces the Largo children. If you're one of the people who's already super excited for this musical about Giles from Buffy going around harvesting people's foreclosed organs, then you'll probably be excited to see this. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Star Wars:

While we're all gearing up to enjoy the Clone Wars movie and TV series (or not, maybe), George Lucas and his team are still working hard on the live action Star Wars TV show that takes place after Revenge Of The Sith. Lucas reiterated that the live-action series takes place on "the lower levels of life" and we won't see any Skywalkers in it. "They hear about the fact it is no longer a republic and now it's an empire, but they are from a world where none of that really means too much to them." [Sydney Herald Sun]

Eureka:

The Sci Fi Channel sent us a preview clip from tonight's episode of weird-science-town show Eureka, featuring a real Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

Sarah Connor Chronicles' Lena Headey says there won't be any romance between her character and Brian Austin Green's Derek Reese, but she hopes to have some romance with FBI agent Ellison. [TV Guide]

Lost:

Rumors for Lost season five. The premier episode, for the first time, takes place in three separate timelines. And apparently Sawyer spends the first few episodes entirely shirtless. [Doc Arzt]

Heroes:

Supposedly this is a video of a visit to Dr. Mohinder Suresh's lab, and it culminates with a shot of Maya all webbed up. Is this confirmation that Mohinder gets spider powers? Or just a weird viral thing? [SuperHiro]

And here are a few more promo stills from the new season opener. [Hellhound's Lair]

Chuck:

In the eighth episode of Chuck season two, there's a security problem at the Buy More store, so Big Mike leaves Morgan, Jeff and Lester in charge at night. But then Morgan comes up with dinner plans, so they all leave the store unattended. Big Mike ends up getting a call from the security company. Meanwhile, Chuck, Sarah and Casey are facing off with Fulcrum agents at a carnival. Chuck's ex Jill warns him about "yet another threat," and he's not sure who to trust, since he still has feelings for Jill. And apparently the line "Unleash the Casey" is spoken at some point. [Chuck TV]

Death Race:

Here are some new promo stills from the prison race-for-your-life movie, Death Race. More of the Frankenstein mask, more of Tyrese looking grimly determined (with scars!) and Statham looking just grim. Cars going boom, flames, etc. But mostly, Joan Allen as the sexy warden who flounces around the prison yard in high heels. Even without points for pedestrians, it manages to be sleazy. [SpoilerTV-Movies]

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen:

The Transformers comic book we mentioned the other day, a prequel to Transformers 2, confirms that the new movie's villain is actually called The Fallen, who turned against Primus and decided to serve the evil Unicron instead. And we'll learn how Sector 7 formed into a group, and the backgrounds of Optimus Prime and Megatron. The comic also mentions that Starscream returned to Cybertron with data accessed by Frenzy, hoping to create a new Allspark Cube. Interestingly, the comic writer was forbidden to use rumored movie stars Soundwave and Arcee. [Slashfilm and Tformers]

Star Wars: Clone Wars:

Here are a few new TV spots for the animated Clone Wars movie, hitting theaters August 15. Fun Ahsoka/Anakin dialog: "You've got that 'We're in trouble' look." "There's a look?" "You can't miss it." And also: "This is where the fun begins!" Also, Ahsoka confesses she's on a mission to prove she's not too young to be a Padawan, then tells Anakin: "I'm improving your technique." (If only.) [Superhero Flix]

Repo! The Genetic Opera:

Did you know Paris Hilton was in the organ repossession musical Repo! The Genetic Opera? I didn't, until I heard she was at Comic-Con. Anyway, if you're curious to see her singing a gothy nursery rhyme about drugs and surgery, here's a new clip, which I think showed at Comic-Con:

Dollhouse:

AfterEllen was among the lucky media outlets that got to tour the set of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse last week, and they posted some new details, plus a few nice pics. Among the snippets: Adelle, the head of the Dollhouse, has her desk facing away from the door and toward the windows, the opposite of the traditional approach-the-desk setup. This means she doesn't have to look at you, which is a power thing. She has a little hidden niche with screens which allow her to watch everyone in the Dollhouse. She's not ruthless, just ruth-deficient, Joss says.

Also, the famous coed showers were just in the first episode, to show how innocent the mind-wiped "actives" are, but now they're in pretty much every episode because the writers like them, and they allow us to see the "Garden of Eden" innocence falling away. The Dollhouse's doctor, Claire Saunders (Amy Acker) has a lab that's cut off from the rest of the space, because Claire is "slightly damaged." The programmer, Topher Brink, has a messy, windowed laboratory, and is a genius who "can't stop playing around." [After Ellen]

Lost:

This guy, who has posted some semi-reliable Lost spoilers on his Livejournal in the past, says a somewhat reliable source tells him one of the Oceanic Six will die next year. So, you know, grain of salt and all that. [Hellhound's Lair]

Smallville:

Tess Mercer, Lex Luthor's hand-picked successor as head of LuthorCorp., is sort of a mixture of Ms. Teschmacher from Superman: The Movie and Mercy from the comics. But she's mostly a new character, and her drive matches Lex's. [Sci Fi Wire]

Chuck:

On nerd-spy show Chuck, our hero finally gets a date with sexy secret agent Sarah in the first episode of the new season. But it ends up being 86ed, thanks to the other sexy secret agent, Casey. Also, as we've mentioned, John Larroquette plays a retired spy who schools Chuck, and in that same episode Melinda Clarke has a wacky Russian accent. [EW]

Eureka:

Next week's Eureka, "What About Bob?" is about a missing-persons case that reveals more about what happens in the bowels of Global Dynamics. And the following week's episode, "Best In Faux," is about a unique dog show. (With, I'm guessing, those robot dogs that were plastered all over our front page recently.) [Visit Eureka]

Hulk Vs. Thor:

Now that you're pumped up for the cameo-filled Hulk Vs. Wolverine, here's the trailer for the next installment, Hulk Vs. Thor. [Superhero Flix]

Terminator: Salvation:

Here's another new image from the fourth Terminator film. [IGN]

Star Trek:

So the villain of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek reboot/requel, Nero, is supposed to be the leader of a merry band of Romulans. But you might have noticed, in the posters that came out the other day, that he has no pointy ears. And weird face tattoos. What gives? Co-writer Alex Kurtzman says Nero "isn't necessarily a Romulan," and that "It's all part of the plot." [Trek Web]

X-Files: I Want To Believe:

Is the new X-Files movie a shipper lovefest? Well, this smoochy new TV spot may give you a bit of a clue.

Monsters Vs. Aliens:

Some new trading cards give some more insights into the characters in Monsters Vs. Aliens, the 3-D animated movie that's just what it sounds like. Stephen Colbert is the president of the United States and Kiefer Sutherland is the crazy General W.R. Monger, who's been locked in Area 52 along with the monsters he caught. Insectosaurus is a grub who was exposed to radiation and grew to 350 feet, and Reese Witherspoon's Ginormica was hit by a meteor on her wedding day and grew to 49 feet, 11 inches. Dr. Cockroach, PhD (Hugh Laurie) was trying to combine the survival traits of cockroaches with humans, when he accidentally gave himself a cockroach head. And the Missing Link is pretty self-explanatory. [Film School Rejects and Slashfilm]

Repo! The Genetic Opera:

A new review gives some details about the organ-repossession musical. Buffy's Anthony Stewart Head plays Nathan, a blade-wielding scientist who's convinced he's responsible for the death of his wife and the illness of his goth daughter Shilo. Rotti Largo, owner of GeneCo, tricks Nathan into becoming his Repo man, collecting on debts and "the occasional kidney." Shilo is the emotional core of the film. Weird bits of casting include Paris Hilton and Phantom Of The Opera star Sarah Brightman. In a weird twist, the painkiller used in organ transplants can be harvested from the dead, and the operatic Grave Robber is the one who collects it. [Variety]

Sarah Connor Chronicles:

Here are a couple of new trailers for the Terminator TV show, which includes some new footage of crazy homicidal Summer Glau and resolute, gun-clicking Sarah Connor. Who takes a shower.

Battlestar Galactica (And Torchwood):

With both Jamie "Apollo" Bamber and Freema "Martha" Agyeman starring in Law And Order: UK, they may both be too busy to film other things. Which may mean no Lee Adama in a forthcoming BSG TV movie. And no Martha Jones in Torchwood? [Digital Spy]

Heroes:

The Petrelli brothers spend more time together this season. And Tim Kring told Milo Ventimiglia that anyone who dies this year stays dead for real. Really. No kidding. [Sci Fi Wire]

Knight Rider:

Here's a new preview of the smart-car show you're most excited for in the fall season. [Spoiler TV]

Possibly the best moment of this behind the scenes look is watching Alexa Vega do jazz hands to the piano version of her rock cry for attention and then it switches over to the rock version and she's all sex-kittened out slapping her sides. It's quite hilarious how different the two are. Also hilarious the "Suicide (something)" rock band they get to play the song, look at how hardcore they are smoking IN THE RECORDING STUDIO. You are truly a rebel, sleeveless t-shirt guy, truly.

Check out Repo's fancy new website with pics and more looks at Buffy's Giles slicing his way through a dystopian future.