Alex Cox
Cox in 2019
Born	Alexander B. H. Cox (1954-12-15)15 December 1954 (age 70) Bebington, Merseyside, England[1]
Alma mater	University of Bristol University of California, Los Angeles
Occupations	Director screenwriter actor author
Years active	1980–present
Notable work	Repo Man Sid and Nancy
Spouse	Tod Davies

Alexander B. H. Cox (born 15 December 1954)^[2][3] is an English film director, screenwriter, actor, non-fiction author and broadcaster. Cox experienced success early in his career withRepo Man (1984) andSid and Nancy (1986). Since the release and commercial failure ofWalker (1987), his career has moved towardsindependent films, includingHighway Patrolman (1991) andThree Businessmen (1998), andmicrobudget features such asSearchers 2.0 (2007) andRepo Chick (2009).^[1]

Cox has taught screenwriting and film production at theUniversity of Colorado, Boulder and has written numerous educational books on film and television.

Cox was born inBebington,Merseyside, England in 1954.^[1] He attendedWorcester College, Oxford, and later transferred to theUniversity of Bristol, where he majored infilm studies.^[4] Cox secured aFulbright Scholarship, allowing him to study at theUniversity of California, Los Angeles, United States, where he graduated from theSchool of Theater, Film and Television with anMFA.^[5]

Cox began reading law as an undergraduate atOxford University, but left to study radio, film and TV atBristol University, graduating in 1977. Seeing difficulties in the British film scene at the time, he first went to Los Angeles to attend film school atUCLA in 1977. There he produced his first film,Edge City (also known asSleep Is for Sissies), a 40-minute surreal short about an artist struggling against society. After graduation, Cox formed Edge City Productions with two friends with the intention of producing low-budget feature films. He wrote a screenplay forRepo Man, which he hoped to produce for a budget of $70,000, and began seeking funding.

Michael Nesmith agreed to produceRepo Man, and convincedUniversal Studios to back the project with a budget of over a million dollars. During the course of the film's production, the studio's management changed, and the new management had far less faith in the project. The initial cinema release was limited to Chicago, followed by Los Angeles, and was short-lived.

After the success of the soundtrack album (notable for featuring many popularLA punk bands), there was enough interest in the film to earn a re-release in a single cinema in New York City, but only after becoming available on video and cable. Nevertheless, it ran for 18 months, and eventually earned $4,000,000.

Continuing his fascination withpunk music, Cox's next film was an independent feature shot in London and Los Angeles, following the career and death of bassistSid Vicious and his girlfriendNancy Spungen, initially titledLove Kills and later renamedSid and Nancy. It was met warmly by critics and fans, though heavily criticised by some, including Pistols' frontmanJohn Lydon, for its inaccuracies. The production of this film also sparked a relationship withJoe Strummer ofthe Clash, who would continue to collaborate with the director on his next two films.

Cox had long been interested inNicaragua and theSandinistas (bothRepo Man andEdge City made references to Nicaragua and/or Latin American revolution), and visited in 1984. The following year, he hoped to shoot a concert film there featuringthe Clash,the Pogues andElvis Costello. When he could not get backing, he decided instead to write a film that they would all act in. The film becameStraight to Hell. Collaborating withDick Rude (who also co-starred beside Strummer,Sy Richardson andCourtney Love), he imagined the film as a spoof of theSpaghetti Western genre, filmed inAlmería, Spain, where many classic Italian westerns were shot.Straight to Hell was widely panned critically, but successful in Japan and retains a cult following. On 1 June 2012, Cox wrote an article inThe New York Times about his long-standing interest in spaghetti westerns.^[6]

Continuing his interest in Nicaragua, Cox took on a more overtly political project, with the intention of filming it there. He askedRudy Wurlitzer to pen the screenplay, which followed the life ofWilliam Walker, set against a backdrop of anachronisms that drew parallels between the story and modernAmerican intervention in the area. The $6,000,000 production was backed byUniversal, but the completed film was too political and too violent for the studio's tastes, and the film went without promotion. WhenWalker failed to perform at the box office, it ended the director's involvement withHollywood studios, and led to a period of several years in which Cox would not direct a single film. Despite this, Cox and some critics maintain that it is his best film.

In 1988, The Writers Guild of America West barred Cox from any future membership because he had worked on scripts during the writers' strike.^[7] Effectivelyblacklisted, Alex Cox struggled to find feature work. He finally got financial backing for a feature from investors in Japan, where his films had been successful on video. Cox had scouted locations in Mexico during the pre-production ofWalker and decided he wanted to shoot a film there, with a local cast and crew, in Spanish. ProducerLorenzo O'Brien penned the script. Inspired by the style of Mexican directors includingArturo Ripstein, he shot most of the film inplano secuencia; long, continuous takes shot with a hand-held camera.El Patrullero was completed and released in 1991, but struggled to find its way into cinemas.

Shortly after this, Cox was invited to adapt aJorge Luis Borges story of his choice for the BBC. He choseDeath and the Compass. Despite being a British production and an English language film, he convinced his producers to let him shoot inMexico City.This film, like his previous Mexican production, made extensive use of long-takes. The completed 55-minute film aired on the BBC in 1992.

Cox had hoped to expand this into a feature-length film, but the BBC was uninterested. Japanese investors gave him $100,000 to expand the film in 1993, but the production ran over-budget, allowing no funds for post-production. To secure funds, Cox directed a "work for hire" project calledThe Winner. The film was edited extensively without Cox's knowledge, and he tried to have his name removed from the credits as a result but was denied, but the money was enough for Cox to fund the completion ofDeath and the Compass. The finished, 82-minute feature received a limited cinema release in the US, where the TV version had not aired, in 1996.

Damián Alcázar, who had a small role inEl Patrullero, went on to collaborate on many occasions with Mexican directorLuis Estrada, in two of whose films,Herod's Law (1999) andA Wonderful World (2006), Cox appears. However, inA Wonderful World, Cox's role is reduced to a cameo at the end of the film.

In 1996, producer Stephen Nemeth employed Alex Cox to write and direct an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson'sFear and Loathing in Las Vegas. After creative disagreements with the producer and Thompson, he was sacked from the project, and his script rewritten whenTerry Gilliam took over the film. (Cox later sued successfully for a writing credit, as it was ruled that there were enough similarities between the drafts to suggest that Gilliam's was derivative of Cox's. Gilliam countered that the screenplays were based on the source book and similarities between them were a consequence of this.)

In 1997, Alex Cox made a deal with Dutch producer Wim Kayzer to produce another dual TV/feature production,Three Businessmen. Initially, Cox had hoped to shoot in Mexico but later decided to set his story inLiverpool,Rotterdam, Tokyo andAlmería. The story follows businessmen in Liverpool who leave their hotel in search of food and slowly drift further from their starting point, all the while believing they are still in Liverpool. The film was completed for a small budget of $250,000. Following this, Cox moved back to Liverpool and became interested in creating films there.

Cox had long been interested in theJacobean play,The Revenger's Tragedy, and upon moving back toBritain, decided to pursue adapting it to a film. Collaborating with fellow Liverpudlian screenwriterFrank Cottrell Boyce, the story was recast in the near future, following an unseen war. This adaptation, titledRevengers Tragedy, consisted primarily of the original play's dialogue, with some additional bits written in a more modern tone. The film is also notable for its soundtrack, composed byChumbawamba.

Following this, Cox directed a short film set in Liverpool for the BBC titledI'm a Juvenile Delinquent – Jail Me! (2004). The 30-minute film satirised reality television as well as the high volume of petty crime in Liverpool which, according to Cox, is largely recreational.

In 2006, Alex Cox tried to get funding for a series of eightvery low budget features set in Liverpool and produced by locals. The project was not completed, but the director grew interested in pursuing the idea of a film made for less than £100,000. He had originally hoped to shootRepo Man on a comparable budget, and hoped that the lower overhead would mean greater creative freedom.^{[citation needed]}

Searchers 2.0, named after but not based onThe Searchers, became Cox's first film for which he has sole writing credit sinceRepo Man, and marked his return to the comedy genre. Aroad movie and a revenge story, it tells of two actors, loosely based on and played byDel Zamora and Ed Pansullo, who travel from Los Angeles to a desert film screening inMonument Valley in the hopes of avenging abuse inflicted on them by a cruel screenwriter, Fritz Frobisher (Sy Richardson). It was scored by longtime collaboratorDan Wool akaPray for Rain (Sid & Nancy,Straight to Hell,Death & the Compass,The Winner,Three Businessmen,Repo Chick among others). Although the film was unable to achieve a cinema release in America or Europe, Cox claimed the experience of making a film with a smaller crew and less restrictions was energising. It is available on DVD in Japan, and was released in October 2010 in North America.^[8]

Alex Cox had attempted to get aRepo Man sequel, titledWaldo's Hawaiian Holiday, produced in the mid-'90s, but the project fell apart, with the script adapted into agraphic novel of the same name.^[9][10] For his next micro-feature, he wrote a fresh attempt at aRepo follow-up, although it contained no recurring characters, so as to preserve Universal's rights to the original.Repo Chick was filmed entirely against a green screen, with backgrounds of digital composites, live action shots, and miniatures matted in afterwards, to produce an artificial look. It premiered at theVenice Film Festival on 9 September 2009.^{[citation needed]}

As of July 2012^[update], Cox was teaching film production and screenwriting at theUniversity of Colorado at Boulder.^[11][1]

In 2013 Cox directedBill, the Galactic Hero, developed from a science fiction book byHarry Harrison. It was funded by a successfulKickstarter funding campaign, raising $114,957 of the original $100,000 goal.^[12] The film was to be made, created and acted by his film students in monochrome with supervision from professional film makers who would be giving their time on the film for free.^[12]

Cox's 2013 bookThe President and the Provocateur examines events in the lives ofJohn F. Kennedy andLee Harvey Oswald leading up to Kennedy's assassination, with reference tothe various conspiracy theories.^[13]

In 2017 Cox directed another crowdfunded film,Tombstone Rashomon, which tells the tale of theGunfight at the O.K. Corral from multiple perspectives in the style ofAkira Kurosawa's 1950 filmRashomon.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2019, Cox started the podcastConversations with Cox and Kjølseth with his friend and colleague Pablo Kjølseth. In October 2022, Cox announced the end of the podcast, citing its small audience and the comparative success of podcasts byJoe Dante,Quentin Tarantino and Cox's one-time collaboratorRoger Deakins.^[14]

In June 2024 Cox begancrowdfunding a film adaptation ofNikolai Gogol's novelDead Souls, which he says will be his last film.^[15][16]

In May 1988 Cox began presenting the long-running and influential BBC seriesMoviedrome. The weekly strand was a showcase for cult films. Though most of the films shown were chosen by series creator and producer Nick Jones, each film was introduced by Cox. By the time he left the show in September 1994, Cox had introduced 141 films. Various film directors have citedMoviedrome as an influence, includingBen Wheatley andEdgar Wright. The series was later presented by film director and criticMark Cousins.^[17]

Cox has citedLuis Buñuel andAkira Kurosawa as influences,^[18] as well as theWestern film directorsSergio Leone,Sergio Corbucci,Sam Peckinpah,John Ford andGiulio Questi. Cox also wrote a book on the history of the genre called10,000 Ways to Die. While he once directed films forUniversal Pictures, such asRepo Man andWalker, since the late 1980s, he has found himself on a self-describedblacklist, and turned to producingindependent films.^[19] Cox is anatheist^[20] and is decidedly left-wing in his political views. Many of his films have an explicitanti-capitalist theme or message. He was originally set to directFear and Loathing in Las Vegas but was replaced byTerry Gilliam due to creative differences withHunter S. Thompson.^[21] By August 2009, Cox had announced completion ofRepo Chick, which premiered at theVenice Film Festival the following month, but he remained ambivalent as to whether the film would ever be distributed to cinemas.^[22] His previous film,Searchers 2.0, was not released theatrically, and only appears on DVD in Japan and North America after a televised screening in the UK on the BBC.

Cox is a fan of the JapaneseGodzilla films and appeared in a 1998 BBC documentary highlighting the series. He also narrated the documentaryBringing Godzilla Down to Size and wrote theGodzilla in Time comics forDark Horse. He tried to direct an AmericanGodzilla film at one point, but unsuccessfully submitted his outline toTriStar Pictures.

As of 2011, Cox resided inColestin, Oregon, United States, with his wife, writer Todelina Babish Davies.^[23][1]

• Alex Cox Films
• Alex Cox atIMDb
• Rabin, Nathan (20 September 2000)."Interview: Alex Cox".The Onion.
• Murray, Noel (13 March 2008)."Interview: Alex Cox".The Onion.
• Wilentz, David (4 April 2008)."In Conversation: Alex Cox".The Brooklyn Rail.

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