It was released in 1984 and quickly became a cult film. Now director Alex Cox is planning his return
This year marks 40 years since its premiere, but Repo Manreleased in Spain as The recuperatorremains incredibly popular today, especially by fans of 80s fantasy and cult cinema. The sci-fi film starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez was produced with only 1.5 million dollars, continues to be acclaimed by critics and the public and regularly appears in top science fiction films of the time. When Entertainment Weekly voted for the best cult movies of all time, Repo Man It came in seventh place, while the American Film Institute included the work in its list of the best science fiction films of all time. This 2024, four decades after its premiere, its sequel has been announced.
However, in case the return of Repo Man Although it was not good news in itself, it is worth noting that its sequel is once again directed by the British Alex Cox, director and screenwriter of the original film and other popular films of the 80s, such as the political western Walker (A True Story) starring Ed Harris or the biographical film Sid and Nancy with Gary Oldman. However, after his dismissal from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas In the late 1990s and his replacement by Terry Gilliam, he only made a few low-budget films.
As confirmed by various media last February, Cox will now direct Repo Man 2: The Wages of Beer, which is still in its first stage of development.
The protagonist of the original film was Otto Maddox, played by Emilio Estevez, a young punk who lives in Los Angeles and who, after being fired from his boring job in a supermarket, ends up meeting Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), an experienced repossession agent, better known as “Repo Man”, who works for a corporation specialized in repossessing cars from people who have not been able to pay their loan payments. Under the wing of his mentor, Otto learns the business and soon they both receive a special mission: secure the Chevrolet Malibu of a mysterious scientist. The surprise will come when they open the trunk, since it has a very special load.
“Classic work of the most hooligan science fiction,” critic Paula Arantzazu Ruiz would write about it in SensaCine“the plastic of Repo Man, thanks to the wonderful work of Robby Müller [director de fotografía] with the Californian sunsets and the fluorine aesthetic, it would mark an era because it would help define the aesthetics of Los Angeles punk in the 80s.”
Now the plan is that Repo Man 2: The Wages of Beer refocus on Otto again. The young rocker was traveling through space and time in the mysterious Chevrolet Malibu and now he is back on Earth. Otto has only aged 90 minutes, but the world has completely changed. Therefore, Emilio Estevez cannot take on the role of the main character again, so Kiowa Gordon, known for the saga, will do it. Twilight and the series Borderamong other.
In the official announcement of the project, the team after Repo Man 2as collected Entertainment Weeklywas excited: “After a long period of anticipation, director Alex Cox’s efforts finally culminate with the sequel to the cult classic. We have every confidence in Kiowa’s ability to take on the iconic role of Otto, originally immortalized by Emilio Estevez in 1984 when the film first debuted,” producer Adam Harris Engelhard said in a statement that described the sequel as “punk energy, existential comedy and unconventional storytelling, navigating the absurd and chaotic world of the Reclaimers toward a new era of nuclear brinkmanship and driverless vehicles.
If all goes well, filming could begin soon, making it possible to premiere as early as 2025.
