Alex Cox

Alexander Cox (born December 15, 1954 in Bebington , England ) is a British film director , screenwriter , writer and actor . Cox achieved early career success through the films Repoman and Sid and Nancy , but concentrated on independent films after the commercial flop of the film Walker .

background

Cox cites Luis Buñuel , Akira Kurosawa and the three western directors Sergio Leone , Sam Peckinpah and John Ford as influences for his work. He also wrote a book on the history of the western genre called 10,000 Ways to Die . Although he in the 1980s in films like Repo Man and Walker worked, he indicates, since the late eighties in Hollywood on a black list to stand and is now focused on producing independent films . Cox is an atheist and politically left. Many of his films explicitly deal with an anti-capitalist theme. He was originally scheduled to direct the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas , but was replaced by Terry Gilliam after differences with Hunter S. Thompson . In August 2009, Cox announced the completion of the film Repo Chick , which was shown a month later at the Venice International Film Festival but did not go into theaters. His previous film Searchers 2.0 was also not shown in theaters and was only released on DVD in North America and Japan.

Cox is a fan of the Japanese Godzilla films and made an appearance in a BBC documentary in 1998 that centered on the films. He was also the voice actor for the documentary Bringing Godzilla Down to Size and wrote the Godzilla in Time comics for Dark Horse .

Career

Studies and independent films

Cox began studying law at Oxford University , but then went to Bristol University to study radio, film and TV, which he successfully completed in 1977. Then he went to Los Angeles to the University of California . Here he also produced his first film Edge City / Sleep is for Sissies , a 40-minute short film about an artist and his struggle with society. After graduating, he founded the Edge City Productions studio with the intention of producing low-budget films. He wrote the script for Repoman and was hoping to produce the film on a budget of $ 70,000, for which he was looking for investors.

Hollywood (1978–1987)

Michael Nesmith agreed to the production of Repoman and convinced Universal Studios to support the project with over one million US dollars. During the production, however, the management was changed and there was a lack of trust in Alex Cox. As a result, the first theatrical release was limited to Chicago and Los Angeles .

The film got a lot of attention due to the success of the soundtrack album, so it was shown by a New York cinema for 18 months after its video release and grossed $ 4,000,000.

Due to his fascination for punk music , he processed the life story of Sid Vicious and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen in his next film , which was published under the title Sid and Nancy . During the production of the film he began working with Joe Strummer , the lead singer of The Clash , who also worked on his next two films.

Because of his interest in Nicaragua and Sandinistas (both Repoman and Edge City made references to Nicaragua and / or the Latin American Revolution) he wanted to make a concert film in Nicaragua in 1985 with The Clash , The Pogues and Elvis Costello . Due to a lack of investors for this project, however, he then wrote a script for a film in which they all played, entitled Straight to Hell . He saw the film as a parody of the Spaghetti Western . In June 2012, Cox wrote an article in the New York Times about his interest in the genre.

For his next project, Walker , Rudy Wurlitzer wrote the script, which was based on the life of William Walker and Universal Studios supported the project with $ 6,000,000. The end product was too violent and political for the studio, which is why the film was released without advertising and a commercial flop. Even so, Cox and some critics think Walker is his best film yet.

Mexico (1988–1996)

Due to Walker's flop, among other things , Cox could n't find work in Hollywood , so his next project, El Patrullero, was financed by Japanese investors. The film was shot in Mexico and released in 1991.

Shortly after this project, the BBC gave him the opportunity to adapt a Jorge Luis Borges story of his choice. He chose Death and the Compass and shot the film in Mexico City . The 55-minute film was broadcast on the BBC in 1992. Cox wanted to make the film full-length, but the BBC wasn't interested. He got $ 100,000 from Japanese investors to expand the film, but shooting the film used up all of the budget, so there was nothing left for post-production. Cox therefore shot the film The Winner to pay for the completion of the film. The 82-minute version of Death and the Compass was released in individual US cinemas in 1996.

Liverpool (1997-2006)

In 1996 Stephen Nemeth commissioned Alex Cox to create a film adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . But after artistic differences he left the project and Terry Gilliam took over his post. In 1997, the Dutch producer Wim Kayzer gave Cox the opportunity to shoot another cinema and TV production: Three Businessmen . Cox initially wanted to shoot in Mexico again, but then moved the story to Liverpool , Rotterdam , Tokyo and Almería . The film was shot on a budget of $ 250,000 and has not been released in US theaters. Cox moved back to Liverpool and wrote the script for the film The Revenger's Tragedy with Frank Cottrell Boyce, which was based on a Jacobian play. The soundtrack was written by Chumbawamba . He then directed a 30-minute short film in Liverpool for the BBC called I'm a Juvenile Delinquent - Jail Me! . The film mocked reality TV and petty crime in Liverpool.

today

In 2007, Cox published the road movie Searchers 2.0 , which was not shown in cinemas in Europe or the USA. However, Cox described working with a smaller crew and fewer restrictions as energizing. In the mid-1990s, Cox wanted to shoot a sequel to Repoman called Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday , but the project failed and the script was rewritten into a graphic novel . He has now written and turned a new sequel called Repo Chick which was shown on September 9th at the Venice International Film Festival .

Since 2012, Cox has been teaching film production and screenwriting at the University of Colorado Boulder .

In 2013 he published the book The President and the Provocateur and in 2014 he published the film Bill the Galactic Hero .

Views on the September 11th terrorist attacks

In a blog post from March 2007, Cox described then-Vice-President Dick Cheney as the "secret architect of the 9-11 atrocities". In the same article he referred to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 as "Planned Pearl Harbor", which he referred to the conspiracy theories for the attack on Pearl Harbor .

Filmography (selection)

• 1980: Sleep is for Sissies
• 1984: Repoman
• 1986: Sid and Nancy
• 1987: Straight to Hell
• 1987: Walker
• 1992: El Patrullero (Highway Patrolman)
• 1996: The Winner
• 1996: Death and the Compass
• 1998: Three Businessmen
• 1999: Kurosawa: The Last Emperor
• 2000: Emmanuelle: A Hard Look
• 2002: Revengers Tragedy
• 2002: Mike Hama Must Die!
• 2003: I'm a Juvenile Delinquent - Jail Me!
• 2007: Bringing Godzilla Down to Size
• 2007: Searchers 2.0
• 2009: Repo Chick
• 2014: Bill the Galactic Hero

Books

• 10,000 Ways to Die (2008)
• X Films: True Confessions of a Radical Filmmaker (2008)
• Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday (2008)
• Three Dead Princes (Illustrator) (2010)
• The President and the Provocateur: The Parallel Lives of JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald (2013)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Noel Murray: Alex Cox Interview The AV Club . Avclub.com. March 13, 2008. Accessed May 31, 2016.
2. ↑ Alex Cox - Kurosawa: The Last Emperor . Retrieved May 31, 2016.
3. ↑ Stephen Thompson: Is there a God? . The AV Club. August 6, 2000. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
4. ↑ JD Lafrance: Radiator Heaven: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . Rheaven.blogspot.com. November 10, 2008. Retrieved May 31, 2016.
5. ↑ Director Alex Cox on His Long-Awaited Non-Sequel Repo Chick . Retrieved May 31, 2016.
6. ↑ Alex Cox: A Spaghetti Western Roundup at Film Forum . In: The New York Times , June 1, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2016. 
7. ↑ Alex Cox - WALKER. In: alexcox.com. Retrieved May 30, 2016 . 
8. ^ First Look: Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday . Retrieved May 31, 2016.
9. ↑ Alex Cox: The Fretful Birth of the New Western . In: The New York Times , July 29, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2016. 
10. ^ Book Review: The President and the Provocateur . June 28, 2013. Accessed May 31, 2016.
11. ↑ The SEARCHERS 2.0 rough cut is complete . In: Alex Cox - BLOG . 2008 (2007.3.2). Archived from the original on November 12, 2012. Retrieved on December 23, 2013.

Web links

• Alex Cox website
• Alex Cox in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Alex Cox interview , from The Onion - September 20, 2000
• The Brooklyn Rail interview