Photograph of Alex Cox.
Alex Cox

Overview

Alexander Cox (b. December 15, 1954) is a British film director and sometime actor, notable for his idiosyncratic style and aproach to scripts. Cox has previously cited Luis Buñuel and Akira Kurosawa as influences. His film Repo Man is often credited as one of the first truly independent movies . It was this film that brought him critical attention.

Brief Biography

Alex Cox was born in Bebington, Wirral, Nr. Liverpool, Merseyside. Cox studied at Wirral Grammar School and later at Worcester College, Oxford, then embarking upon a course in film studies at Bristol University and UCLA in California (Interestingly, the Wirral produced another significant British film director in Charles Crichton, born in nearby Wallasey and most famous for his comedies for Ealing Studios).

As well as directing films, Cox has helped pen screenplays for the film versions of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He has also written on the subject of film for publications such as Sight and Sound, The Guardian, The Independent, and Film Comment. From 1988 to 1994, he presented the television series Moviedrome on BBC Two, providing introductions to a series of alternative or obscure films that would otherwise be unknown to the general public. As a film aficionado, Cox also lent his opinions to numerous film documentaries, and provided discussive introductions for ITV4's Spaghetti Western series made by Free@Last TV and directed by Katie Kinnaird.

During his career, Cox has turned down offers to direct the films Robocop, Three Amigos, and The Running Man . Following his success with Repo Man, Cox had planned to direct a semi-sequel in the mid-90s, entitled Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday, in which he intended to star Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton, Rebecca De Mornay, and Willem Dafoe. However, funding was never established. The script is available for download at alexcox.com.

In the documentary, Breakfast With Hunter, Cox is rebuked by Hunter S. Thompson for his suggestions that the filmed version of 'wave speech' segment in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas be animated.

Cox is married to Tod Davies, who wrote and produced Three Businessmen and produced Revengers Tragedy. Their production company is called Exterminating Angel, named after the Louis Buñuel film of the same name.

Partial filmography

Feature films
* Sleep Is for Sissies (1980) * Repo Man (1984) * Sid & Nancy (1986) * Straight to Hell (1987) * Walker (1987) * El Patrullero (1992) * The Winner (1996) * Death and the Compass (1996) * Three Businessmen (1998) * Revengers Tragedy (2002) * The Searchers 2.0 (2007)

References

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That biography says:

...The title track is actually a medley of six cover versions (of artists as diverse and unexpected as The Association, The Carpenters, and Tammy Wynette) strung together to create a story line of two people who fall in love, have an unplanned pregnancy, rush into marriage, and end up divorced. Another song from the album, "Coup D'Etat", was used in the soundtrack of Alex Cox's early film Repo Man, and the band makes an appearance playing an acoustic/lounge version of "When The Shit Hits The Fan"...
How is Alex Cox connected to Luis Buñuel? Tell the world.

This biography says:

...In the documentary, Breakfast With Hunter, Cox is rebuked by Hunter S. Thompson for his suggestions that the filmed version of 'wave speech' segment in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas be animated...

That biography says:

...His film career has since taken off with a variety of high-profile but not — except in one or two cases — major roles, including parts in Jude (1996) (where he shared a scene with David Tennant, his successor as the Doctor in Doctor Who), Elizabeth (1998), eXistenZ (1999), Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), The Others (2001), 24 Hour Party People (2002) and another Danny Boyle film, the horror movie 28 Days Later (2002). He played a major role as the protagonist of Alex Cox's 2002 Revengers Tragedy, adapted from Thomas Middleton's play of the same name. He has starred alongside two major Hollywood actresses in smaller independent films, playing opposite Renée Zellweger in A Price Above Rubies (1998) and Cameron Diaz in The Invisible Circus (2001)...

That biography says:

* 1979 film debut as "Earl Manchester" in Americathon * 1984 as "Henry Scully" in UK TV series Scully * 1985 as inept magician "Rosco de Ville" in the Alan Bleasdale film No Surrender * 1987 as "Hives the Butler" in the Alex Cox film Straight to Hell, starring Joe Strummer and Courtney Love * 1994, 1996 as himself in The Larry Sanders Show * 1997 as himself in Spiceworld * 1999 as himself in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, performing the song "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" with Burt Bacharach * 1999 as himself in 200 Cigarettes * 2000 as himself in Sans plomb * 2001 as a public defender and a teacher in Prison Song, * 2001 as himself in the final episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun, * 2002 as himself (voice) in "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation", an episode of The Simpsons * 2003 Academy Award nomination for best original song "The Scarlet Tide" in Cold Mountain...

That biography says:

* "Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt fought war over route through Central America" from the Vanderbilt Register * "Walker's expeditions" from GlobalSecurity.org * "Filibustering with William Walker" from the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco * Fuchik, Don "The Saga of William Walker" The California Native Newsletter * "Walker" the 1987 Alex Cox movie, Walker, featuring Ed Harris as William Walker, at the Internet Movie Database...

That biography says:

...Strummer also later worked with Mick Jones and his band Big Audio Dynamite, contributing to the band's second album by co-writing most of the songs. In 1987 he starred in the film Walker, directed by Alex Cox, as a character named "Faucet" and wrote and performed on the film's soundtrack. He starred in another Cox film that same year called Straight to Hell, as the character Simms...

That biography says:

*Zulu with second unit director Robert Porter. *Once Upon a Time in the West with John Carpenter, John Milius, Alex Cox and Sir Christopher Frayling.

That biography says:

...10 Upping St., co-producing the album and co-writing seven of its songs. Strummer acted in a few movies, notably Alex Cox's Walker, and Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train, as well as a cameo in Aki Kaurismäki's I hired a Contract Killer, in which he sings "Burning Lights/Afro-Cuban Be-Bop"...

That biography says:

*During the 2005 general election campaign, the band, who feel strongly about environmental issues, donated ''This Fire'' as the background music for the election broadcasts by the three UK Green parties. The TV broadcasts, directed by Alex Cox and produced by Kim Ryan, were screened on 28 April, 2005 across all UK terrestrial channels....

That biography says:

...Spungen's and Vicious' romance was the subject of an off-Broadway play and the 1986 Alex Cox film Sid and Nancy, in which Chloe Webb portrayed Spungen, opposite Gary Oldman as Vicious.

That biography says:

...He really bought his public image." A fictionalised account of Vicious's relationship with Spungen appears in the 1986 film Sid and Nancy, directed by Alex Cox. Lydon has been publicly critical of the film, taking issue both with its portrayal of the main characters and the speculation that Vicious and Spungen had formed a suicide pact...

That biography says:

...In cameo roles, he can be seen as a tough police officer in Malcolm X (1992), and as a drawbridge operator in Porky's Revenge (1985). In 1992, he starred in Alex Cox's Death and the Compass, an adaptation of Jorge Luis Borges' La Muerte y la Brujula. However, the film was not released until 1996...

That biography says:

...Lastly, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bjelland started what ultimately would become her longest-running band, Babes in Toyland: Courtney briefly played bass, but was kicked out of this group as well. Love had more early success as an actress, appearing as the best friend of Nancy Spungen in Alex Cox's Sid Vicious biopic Sid and Nancy in 1986, and in Cox's Straight to Hell in 1987, as well as some small roles on television episodes...

That biography says:

...Based on Elias Lönnrot's fame as a researcher, the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges used the name Lönnrot for the diligent detective in his story, Death and the Compass (La muerte y la brújula), which was also made into a film by Alex Cox.

That biography says:

...The album spawned several more singles, Celebrate, Dog Train and Too Real (the accompanying promo video of which was directed by cult UK movie director, Alex Cox)....

That biography says:

...She sang "Ghost Riders in the Sky" over the closing credits of Alex Cox's film Three Businessmen....

That biography says:

...The setting was in London's Soho in the Raymond Review Bar, later to be a key location for the film Sid and Nancy directed by British, punk director Alex Cox-who in the film paid a homage to Julien Temple in the scene where Sid Vicious sings his angst ridden take of My Way about 50 minutes into the movie...

That biography says:

...A bit of a stylistic anomaly for Scorsese, After Hours fits in well with popular low-budget "cult" films of the 1980s, e.g. Jonathan Demme's Something Wild and Alex Cox's Repo Man.

This biography says:

...Following his success with Repo Man, Cox had planned to direct a semi-sequel in the mid-90s, entitled Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday, in which he intended to star Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton, Rebecca De Mornay, and Willem Dafoe. However, funding was never established. The script is available for download at alexcox.com....

This biography says:

...Following his success with Repo Man, Cox had planned to direct a semi-sequel in the mid-90s, entitled Waldo's Hawaiian Holiday, in which he intended to star Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton, Rebecca De Mornay, and Willem Dafoe. However, funding was never established. The script is available for download at alexcox.com...

That biography says:

...Stanton) (1972) *Dillinger (1973) *Up in Smoke (1973) *Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) *Where the Lilies Bloom (1973) *The Godfather Part II (1974) *Cockfighter (1974) *Farewell My Lovely (1975) *The Missouri Breaks (1976) *Renaldo and Clara (1978) *Straight Time (1978) *Wise Blood (1979) *The Rose (1979) *Alien (1979) *Deathwatch (La Mort en Direct) (1980) *The Black Marble (1980) *Private Benjamin (1980) *UFOria (1981) *Escape from New York (1981) *Young Doctors in Love (1982) *Christine (1983) *Paris, Texas (1984) *Red Dawn (1984) *Repo Man (1984) *The Care Bears Movie (1985) *One Magic Christmas (1985) *Fool for Love (1985) *Pretty in Pink (1986) *The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) *Wild at Heart (1990) *Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) *Hotel Room (1992) *Never Talk to Strangers (1995) *The Band - The Authorized Video Biography (1995; as narrator) *Down Periscope (1996) *She's So Lovely (1997) *Fire Down Below (1997) *Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) *The Mighty (1998) *The Straight Story (1999) *The Green Mile (1999) *The Pledge (2001) *The Man Who Cried (2001) *Sonny (2002) *Straight to Hell: The Alex Cox Collection (2003) *The Big Bounce (2004) *Alien Autopsy (2006) *You, Me and Dupree (2006), (uncredited) *Inland Empire (2006) *Alpha Dog'' (2007)
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