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♪

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♪

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♪

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Most of the projects I initially
worked on were very, very

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strange movies, and they couldn't
really hang on any kind of peg.

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But then I discovered that certain
things in my work scared them.

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If I talked about the supernatural
or something, or there

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was a murder or something in the
story, this would scare people.

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Well, they might not be relevant
to it, or they might

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be misinterpreting it, and I was
able to pick up on that.

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♪

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I first heard of Richard Stanley in
the early 90s when hardware was

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coming out at the time We were used
to horror film directors having

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beards and looking like your dad And
then here was this sort of young

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hot guy He had the long hair and very
mysterious Look and the and the

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wide-brimmed hat that became associated
with him over the years

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making this brand new film That was
unlike a lot of the films that

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had been leading up to it in the 80s
And I was very struck by Richard

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Stanley's vision It was kind of different
from anything else that had

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been going on His use of color and
light and music and really

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creating this unique dystopian vision
for his story I still think

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it's one of the most important genre
films of the 90s, but woven

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throughout it was this sort of esoteric
Witchiness which is sort of a

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trademark of Richard Stanley's works
and his life in general Richard

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Stanley was casting this spell on you
when you watched his film I was

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brought up by a strong mother who
was involved in witchcraft and

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anthropology and stuff I stayed on
the road the whole time But she

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was a very good mother in that she
was very unstable And gave me a

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kind of disastrous upbringing that was
largely responsible for what I

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am today It was a huge hit I mean in
genre terms it was definitely a

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huge hit and it was definitely something
where this guy was the next

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big thing You know, this is somebody
you wanted to see what he was

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gonna do next And it was largely because
of the success of hardware

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that Miramax worked with him on Dust
Devil Miramax's view of Richard?

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Good, good, good question.

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I think they They like Richard in a

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way that They like what he

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is with hardware After Dust Devil
Richard gets the opportunity

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to direct The Island of Dr. Moreau
We just thought that Richard

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Stanley doing Island of Dr. Moreau
was one of the most exciting

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projects we'd heard of in a while
Well, here was someone who had

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worked on the independent side,
but now he was getting the

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backing of a studio This is gonna
be a huge project and this is

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gonna propel Richard Stanley into the

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superstardom that he deserves
as an auteur

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♪

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♪

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♪

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♪

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♪

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♪

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♪

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Okay, well here we have a
mound of rather tatty

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surviving artworks from Dr.
Moreau that give some

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brief glimpse into the workhouse
of filthy creation.

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A lot of the beast people
are going to be

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wearing human masks, just
the same as human

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beings in, I guess, pagan tribes
and faiths wear animal masks.

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We wanted the beast people to
be wearing human masks.

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The sloth people, although they
weren't very bright, I

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originally wanted them to be stop
motion or something like that.

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I wanted a couple of stop motion
creatures in there.

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I think it happens in a rather different
way in the Frankenheimer movie.

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One of those shots you
just would never

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have gotten in the finished
New Light version.

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Mutant baby sucks a mutant nipple.

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Happily.

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I'd first come across the book,
in fact the same copy I've

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got here, which is a first edition
in my father's bookshelf.

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When I was very small, four or
five, I remember being drawn

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to it, probably because it was
bright red and it's got some

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interesting plates in it, and being
warned off by my parents

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who consistently told me that
it was too scary, which of

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course drew me to it very strongly
and I read it as fast as I could.

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It's a book about humanity, about
man and nature, man and

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God, civilisation, and essentially
what it means to be human.

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It's a vast, complex book,
written right at the

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height of the British
Empire, and I think

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spurred by Darwin's theory on
the origin of the species.

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In the book, Moreau has
been hounded out of

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conventional society in London by

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anti-vivisectionists who have been obviously
appalled by what he's doing.

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A flayed dog escapes from
his laboratory in

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London, which causes a controversy
in the newspapers.

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The Moreau horrors, he's forced
to try and find a

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place in the world where
he's able to work in

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isolation without conventional society
looking over his shoulder.

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To a large extent, he's a metaphor
for God, he's the creator being.

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He created the beast
people, they're not

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experiments, they're things which
have never existed before.

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In a curious footnote, Wells
was a close friend at that

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point in time of Joseph Conrad,
and about one year later,

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Conrad turned in a book called
Heart of Darkness, which

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caused Wells and Conrad to fall
out bitterly, as Wells

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claimed that Conrad was essentially
ripping off Island of

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Dr. Moreau, and that the character of

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Kurtz in Heart of Darkness
was based on Moreau.

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Certainly, structurally, there's similarities
between the two books.

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The narrator spends the entire
story journeying towards the

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island in Island of Dr. Moreau,
and eventually getting up to

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finally addressing Moreau, and asking
what it's all about, in

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the same way that the narrator, Marlow,
journeys upriver to find Kurtz.

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Certainly with Heart of Darkness,
the Kurtz character has

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retreated from mankind, per se,
and certainly civilization.

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Conrad defended the accusations of
plagiarism by claiming that,

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in fact, he had based the character
of Kurtz, not on Dr. Moreau,

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but on the celebrated African traveller,
Sir Henry Morton Stanley.

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It's interesting, as far as Richard's
concerned, that his

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great-grandfather, Henry Morton
Stanley, was considered to be

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one of the main bases of Kurtz's
character, and it seems certain

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reports of Stanley did kind of
give him this megalomaniac

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texture, and it seemed
that he was less

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than gentle with the locals,
shall we say.

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♪

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♪

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The book was first adapted to the
screen in 1932 by Earl C.

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Kenton under the title
Island of Lost Souls.

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Wells was still alive
at the time and was

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bitterly disappointed by
the film adaption.

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He felt it was a terrible
bastardisation

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of his work and to some
extent he's right.

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Although Island of Lost Souls is probably
the most effective screen adaptation.

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Charles Lawton chooses
to play Moreau as a

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gloating sadist who spends
much of the movie

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twirling his moustachios and reclining
on his chaise log.

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It's a very memorable portrayal
although very far

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from the humane godlike figure
envisaged by Wells.

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It also compresses the
narrative in a way

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which I think every subsequent
adaptation copied.

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In that they're always only interested
in the beast people

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overthrowing Moreau and that's
usually the end of the movie.

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Whereas in the Wells book the
beast people liberate

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themselves just after the halfway
mark of the book.

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And things really become
problematic once the

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beast people try to run the
island for themselves.

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Wells knew that simply by giving
control of the island

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to the beast folk things could
not possibly get any better.

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Things would only backslide
into anarchy and chaos.

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After Island of Lost Souls there
were a slew of illegitimate

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adaptions such as Eddie Romero's Twilight
People from the Philippines.

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Test Tube Terror's half
man half beast all

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monster and Terror is a Man
by Francis Lederer.

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The next official adaption happened
in 1977 and was directed

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by Don Taylor and featured Burt
Lancaster in the Moreau part.

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But Lancaster actually did
a pretty good job.

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Unfortunately the movie's
pretty ham-fisted.

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I saw the Don Taylor version at my
local cinema when I was a kid.

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It has the distinction of being
probably the first movie I

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ever saw which angered me so much
that I wanted my money back.

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I was a big fan of the original
and I was deeply disappointed.

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Amongst other things I was
confused by the fact

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that there was a woman turning
into a panther on

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the poster of the movie which
never happened in the film.

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And I guess from that moment onwards
the germ of the idea started

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to gestate in my mind and I was determined
to try and do it justice.

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To try and adapt the story in a way that
could actually work for screen.

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♪

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Shortly after Dust Devil,
my second film, I

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found myself washed up in
London without a bean.

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I'd never been paid the
second half of my fee.

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The film's rights were
a complete mess.

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To get it back and finish
it, I had to basically

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borrow resources and leverage
pretty much

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everything, so I was probably
about 40 grand in the red.

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Even then, I knew on the back
of Dust Devil that I didn't

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have the political clout to be able
to really get Dr Moreau made.

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I mean, after Dust Devil, I was finding
it very hard just to get gigs.

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He'd written a script, and we had
a quick conversation on the

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phone, and he, at that point, said,
can we actually put together

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some sort of basic image with a script cover
to try and drum up the interest?

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And we then thought, perhaps actually
extending that further,

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we'd recreate a couple of scenes from
the imagined finished product.

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I sincerely believed that if Wells was

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alive now, he would write
it differently.

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There was no way that Wells now
would set the story in 1895.

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Plainly, the story would
be set in the present.

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It's not a story about the past,
but it's about the near future.

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The images, the first
one we produced was

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actually an image of Dr Moreau
with a newborn creature.

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One of the lamps actually
looked like a sort of

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halo around his head, so
the whole point was to

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almost play on the whole virgin
and baby Jesus kind of image.

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The dogmen are not entirely obeying
his orders, because

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we can see behind Moreau's back
some of the dogmen are

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actually licking the blood off
the surgical instruments.

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And way in the background of
the tank, we see a big

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three-eyed, intelligent, Cthulhuoid-type
octopus thing.

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There are going to be sea
creatures as well.

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From that, we decided that actually
we'd produce a series of 12

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images echoing the stations of the
cross, which would begin with

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this basic birth, birth of the baby
Jesus, and then with a sort

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of crucifixion scene at the end, which
is actually Moreau's own death.

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Moreau is originally conceived, actually,
was nothing like Marlon Brando.

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I think I originally talked to Jürgen
Prochner about playing the part.

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I wanted Moreau to be a little
bit more of a new-ager.

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In some of the early pictures, we see he's
still got the long hair and beard.

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I was making him into something
of a composite of

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Timothy Leary and John Lilly, the
dolphin communication expert.

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As important as the character of Dr
Moreau were the beast people.

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They were going to be civilized,
at least more

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so than we've seen in the previous
Moreau versions.

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They've decorated themselves,
they've got piercings,

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00:11:50,250 --> 00:11:52,330
they've got some degree of beast
person civilization.

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There is no Cat Lady in the book.

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The Panther Woman was
added in the L.C.

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Kenton movie in the process
of making it

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more Hollywood, and we
in turn retained her.

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00:12:00,950 --> 00:12:04,470
In reality, Ayesa, our Cat Lady,
is drawn from another novel.

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00:12:04,669 --> 00:12:08,169
We stole it from Outcast of the Islands,
the Joseph Conrad novel.

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00:12:08,610 --> 00:12:11,110
We thought, how's this, this connection
between Conrad and Wells,

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borrowing characters from another Conrad
story was vaguely within our remit.

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I was determined on some level that
I would provide that moment

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that we were going to see the girl
turn into a cat and be an animal.

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00:12:21,430 --> 00:12:23,569
She would run on all fours,
she would become furry.

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00:12:24,450 --> 00:12:28,129
Underneath her, Jalaba is furry
all over and has a tail.

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The dog people take the opportunity
while the master is

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awake to chase her up the wall,
drag her down, kill her.

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00:12:33,690 --> 00:12:36,569
Being civilized, they then
proceed to not just eat

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00:12:36,569 --> 00:12:40,809
her, but to cook her and then
serve her to the castaway.

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When he realizes that what's
happened in his

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absence, he immediately shoots
a couple of the dogmen.

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00:12:45,330 --> 00:12:47,029
The dogmen really love him.

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00:12:47,210 --> 00:12:49,750
Not only that, they've got very short
memories because they're dogs,

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so they don't really remember that
they've killed and cooked the Cat

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Lady to begin with, and they don't really
understand why he's killing them.

229
00:12:55,230 --> 00:12:58,430
We also rationalized that Montgomery
would undoubtedly be

230
00:12:58,430 --> 00:13:01,389
sleeping with the beast people if he's
been on the island for decades.

231
00:13:01,549 --> 00:13:04,930
I know in one version, we had the
thought of the pig lady biting

232
00:13:04,930 --> 00:13:09,430
Montgomery's dick off during the
final party, which later in the

233
00:13:09,430 --> 00:13:12,750
story, the beast people get into
Montgomery's stash, so suddenly

234
00:13:12,750 --> 00:13:16,110
we're dealing with humanized edibles
of drugs, which is a very

235
00:13:16,110 --> 00:13:18,269
appealing thought, and
one starts wondering

236
00:13:18,269 --> 00:13:19,970
how they would behave and
what they would see.

237
00:13:21,389 --> 00:13:23,870
These were to prove to
be controversial

238
00:13:23,870 --> 00:13:26,110
elements later in the
development process.

239
00:13:26,509 --> 00:13:29,730
Here we see the muscular
satire character

240
00:13:29,730 --> 00:13:32,210
cranking the handle to
lower the lift cage.

241
00:13:32,610 --> 00:13:34,110
All the way down the shaft,
there's other

242
00:13:34,110 --> 00:13:36,809
creatures living in the different
layers of the complex.

243
00:13:36,950 --> 00:13:40,009
We see them through the cage of the
elevator, and they're peeking

244
00:13:40,009 --> 00:13:43,730
out, and we notice that there's babies
and fires burning down there.

245
00:13:44,250 --> 00:13:47,250
Kiril, the bear man, reaches for
a conch shell, a sort of Lord

246
00:13:47,250 --> 00:13:50,490
of the Flies touch, and then picks
up the conch shell and blows it.

247
00:13:51,329 --> 00:13:53,149
Yes, there was going to
be animal vision in

248
00:13:53,149 --> 00:13:55,950
this movie, just like toad
vision or droid vision.

249
00:13:56,069 --> 00:13:58,910
Of course, we're going to see-of-view
shots from the beast people.

250
00:13:59,450 --> 00:14:02,289
I remember making phone
calls until I ran out

251
00:14:02,289 --> 00:14:04,889
of change from a phone booth
in South London.

252
00:14:05,990 --> 00:14:09,089
I remember it was close to Christmas
and it was snowing and it was

253
00:14:09,089 --> 00:14:12,710
close to a bus station, but somehow,
just on the remains of my

254
00:14:12,710 --> 00:14:17,430
dwindling change, I managed to basically
get Ed Pressman, the Edward R.

255
00:14:17,529 --> 00:14:20,230
Pressman Film Corporation,
interested in Dr. Moreau.

256
00:14:21,049 --> 00:14:24,829
Ed had produced a lot of fine
movies, notably Badlands for

257
00:14:24,829 --> 00:14:28,230
Terrence Malick, Conan the Barbarian
for John Milius,

258
00:14:28,350 --> 00:14:31,690
Desperate for Wolfgang Peterson,
and Bad Lieutenant for Abel

259
00:14:31,690 --> 00:14:35,970
Ferrara, so Ed had pretty good taste and
was the right man to be the producer.

260
00:14:35,970 --> 00:14:40,069
Island of Dr. Moreau came about by the
initiative of Richard Stanley.

261
00:14:40,769 --> 00:14:44,670
It was a wonderful script and
he was a good filmmaker.

262
00:14:45,029 --> 00:14:46,670
His agent at the time, Jenny Casarato,

263
00:14:46,809 --> 00:14:50,649
represented the estate
of Wells, HG Wells.

264
00:14:51,049 --> 00:14:54,329
Right from the beginning, there was
always that problem that I was

265
00:14:54,329 --> 00:14:57,049
working on something I didn't own
and I needed a big company to

266
00:14:57,049 --> 00:14:59,509
pick it up because somebody had
to actually negotiate with the

267
00:14:59,509 --> 00:15:04,389
Wells estate and try and get hold of the
rights, which were pretty confused.

268
00:15:04,389 --> 00:15:06,870
Mike DeLuca was at New
Line at the time

269
00:15:06,870 --> 00:15:11,889
and liked it and we thought of

270
00:15:11,889 --> 00:15:17,730
it as a modest budget sci-fi film that

271
00:15:17,730 --> 00:15:19,850
would be done for $5-8 million.

272
00:15:20,750 --> 00:15:22,750
Ed immediately wanted
to Americanize the

273
00:15:22,750 --> 00:15:25,769
script, which was something
I was quite opposed to.

274
00:15:26,269 --> 00:15:28,970
I felt that all of Wells' work
is inherently British.

275
00:15:29,610 --> 00:15:32,490
One of the real problems with
the Wells material is that

276
00:15:32,490 --> 00:15:35,129
Britain has never showed any interest
really in adapting it.

277
00:15:35,690 --> 00:15:40,329
In the end, Ed convinced me to allow
them to do this, provided they

278
00:15:40,329 --> 00:15:44,870
hired a screenwriter to work on it who
I thought would do the work justice.

279
00:15:45,610 --> 00:15:48,670
And so we ended up with Michael
Herr, the writer of

280
00:15:48,670 --> 00:15:51,569
Dispatches, the classic book
about the Vietnam War,

281
00:15:52,009 --> 00:15:53,870
which is probably one of the
best books about war

282
00:15:53,870 --> 00:15:57,250
ever written, who also provided the
voiceover to Apocalypse Now.

283
00:15:57,589 --> 00:16:00,110
It was a perfect choice
for Moreau and brought

284
00:16:00,110 --> 00:16:02,610
an awful lot to the Montgomery
character, giving

285
00:16:02,610 --> 00:16:05,930
him some of that hard-boiled,
acid-drenched schtick.

286
00:16:06,069 --> 00:16:07,649
He's the single greatest screenwriter

287
00:16:07,649 --> 00:16:10,670
I've ever worked with
and a very fine man.

288
00:16:11,170 --> 00:16:13,589
I can't say hates is a
strong word, but he

289
00:16:13,589 --> 00:16:16,110
probably does hate Hollywood and
hates the movie industry.

290
00:16:16,649 --> 00:16:21,289
Whether or not he hates the human race
in toto is a harder question.

291
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:27,000
♪

292
00:16:27,250 --> 00:16:31,000
♪

293
00:16:31,429 --> 00:16:35,049
As the company started with virtually
nothing and as we

294
00:16:35,049 --> 00:16:38,329
made our way in the business,
we began to have as part

295
00:16:38,329 --> 00:16:40,929
of our wherewithal, obviously,
production and

296
00:16:40,929 --> 00:16:46,269
acquisition financing that allowed us
to buy films and to make films.

297
00:16:46,729 --> 00:16:49,209
Bob Shea had created something
that was very edgy.

298
00:16:49,469 --> 00:16:53,529
It was all house party, Nightmare
on Elm Street, Ninja Turtles.

299
00:16:53,729 --> 00:16:59,009
It was drive-in, grindhouse,
Saturday matinee type fare.

300
00:16:59,009 --> 00:17:03,629
As artists and executives
in a studio, they were

301
00:17:03,629 --> 00:17:07,849
often maligned by the big
boys as being, you know,

302
00:17:08,690 --> 00:17:12,490
niche and crap, you know, Pink
Flamingos and Freddy.

303
00:17:12,569 --> 00:17:15,809
I mean, these movies make money,
but they don't gain respect.

304
00:17:16,210 --> 00:17:18,029
Mike DeLuca, who was president
of our production

305
00:17:18,029 --> 00:17:21,169
company, he was charged with
the idea of going out and

306
00:17:21,629 --> 00:17:23,950
putting together projects and
then presenting them to

307
00:17:23,950 --> 00:17:26,930
myself to decide whether we wanted
to go ahead with it or not.

308
00:17:26,930 --> 00:17:31,710
In the mid-'90s, Mike started to
bring in directors who were

309
00:17:31,710 --> 00:17:35,450
unknown at the time, like David
Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson.

310
00:17:36,029 --> 00:17:38,389
You know, Mike really gave
these guys their start.

311
00:17:38,629 --> 00:17:41,369
I think New Line started to go
through an identity crisis

312
00:17:41,929 --> 00:17:45,069
because, you know, with all due
respect, when you're used to

313
00:17:45,069 --> 00:17:48,829
having Robert Englund in the commissary,
metaphorically, and now

314
00:17:48,829 --> 00:17:51,909
you've got Robert DeNiro and Dustin
Hoffman with Wag the Dog,

315
00:17:52,009 --> 00:17:54,210
there was this sort of euphoria that

316
00:17:54,210 --> 00:17:56,789
now the minors are playing
with the majors.

317
00:17:57,109 --> 00:17:59,490
So suddenly they're remaking
The Island of Dr.

318
00:17:59,569 --> 00:18:02,230
Moreau, but they want to turn
it into, like, an art film.

319
00:18:02,609 --> 00:18:07,750
You know, I wasn't particularly enthusiastic
about the project, frankly.

320
00:18:08,269 --> 00:18:11,289
Mike DeLuca was more interested in

321
00:18:11,289 --> 00:18:14,369
sort of, like, classic horror.

322
00:18:14,829 --> 00:18:16,809
It all left me pretty cold.

323
00:18:17,049 --> 00:18:20,210
Pressman had me go in and
meet the New Line people

324
00:18:20,649 --> 00:18:24,250
and wanted to get me on the
picture as the producer.

325
00:18:24,529 --> 00:18:28,950
And so we had, I think, basically
just one meeting in my office.

326
00:18:29,349 --> 00:18:33,109
I did meet Richard Stanley
at that point too.

327
00:18:36,799 --> 00:18:40,339
I didn't really know what to make
of him and he showed up

328
00:18:40,339 --> 00:18:43,480
in a hat in a white linen suit
and said that's what he

329
00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:46,440
was going to wear for the whole
picture and never take it off.

330
00:18:46,519 --> 00:18:49,599
I had no doubt going into him
that Richard would be fine.

331
00:18:50,180 --> 00:18:52,599
I thought he was very smart.

332
00:18:52,899 --> 00:18:57,299
He's an odd character but I've worked

333
00:18:57,299 --> 00:18:59,180
with many odd characters as directors.

334
00:18:59,379 --> 00:19:04,339
I thought that Stanley was
a somewhat unusual guy.

335
00:19:04,599 --> 00:19:07,200
He almost got away with not doing

336
00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:09,839
anything goofy and then he
did do one thing goofy.

337
00:19:10,460 --> 00:19:14,200
When my assistant came in
and offered everybody

338
00:19:14,619 --> 00:19:18,399
refreshments he said yes I would
like a cup of coffee.

339
00:19:18,940 --> 00:19:19,940
How do you take it?

340
00:19:20,419 --> 00:19:23,519
And he said either three or
four sugars and when I

341
00:19:23,519 --> 00:19:27,940
heard that and so there's something
going on here that

342
00:19:27,940 --> 00:19:32,419
I don't think I completely understand
but nobody takes

343
00:19:32,419 --> 00:19:38,059
four sugars in a cup of coffee and
walks out as a solid citizen.

344
00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:42,019
He was like me an absolute
stranger to LA.

345
00:19:42,819 --> 00:19:45,000
Nothing in common with anyone here.

346
00:19:45,139 --> 00:19:48,639
I mean I think I think that's really
why we became friends.

347
00:19:48,839 --> 00:19:50,779
Just instantly we had a good rapport.

348
00:19:51,119 --> 00:19:53,940
You know I think when you're an
artist and you have worked

349
00:19:53,940 --> 00:19:57,720
for years with no budget and when
finally you get to do it

350
00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,879
the way that you've always known
you can, you know to the

351
00:20:00,879 --> 00:20:03,920
detail what you're going to do and
how you're going to do it.

352
00:20:04,519 --> 00:20:07,319
And the very first thing really came
down to who was going to be

353
00:20:07,319 --> 00:20:12,019
Dr. Moreau and Ed figured out a way
of getting to Marlon Brando.

354
00:20:13,839 --> 00:20:17,119
Someone had the idea of Brando

355
00:20:17,119 --> 00:20:20,099
playing Dr. Moreau which changed

356
00:20:20,099 --> 00:20:24,599
the whole character of the movie and
increased the budget enormously.

357
00:20:24,920 --> 00:20:26,859
We had just made a film
with him where he was

358
00:20:26,859 --> 00:20:31,740
already totally impossible
so I was pretty

359
00:20:33,079 --> 00:20:36,079
incensed with De Luca for choosing
Marlon Brando as another film.

360
00:20:36,159 --> 00:20:38,519
There was no particular
reason to have him

361
00:20:38,519 --> 00:20:40,240
and he was an incredible
pain in the neck.

362
00:20:40,679 --> 00:20:45,839
The very next thing I heard was that yes
Brando was prepared to be Dr. Moreau.

363
00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:49,059
The money was an escrow
and that the film was

364
00:20:49,059 --> 00:20:51,279
greenlit and was going to
be directed by Roman

365
00:20:51,279 --> 00:20:54,420
Polanski which came completely
out of the left of field.

366
00:20:54,559 --> 00:20:55,559
I hadn't seen that coming.

367
00:20:55,599 --> 00:21:00,339
I responded by firing on
all guns and demanding

368
00:21:00,339 --> 00:21:03,319
that I have the right to
at least one meeting

369
00:21:03,319 --> 00:21:05,319
of Marlon Brando that I'd
written the damn script.

370
00:21:05,759 --> 00:21:07,279
Apparently I was very
unhappy about this.

371
00:21:07,940 --> 00:21:11,539
I was told by Mike De Luca the chappie
from New Line just before

372
00:21:11,539 --> 00:21:14,720
the meeting that Brando was going to
really rake me over the coals.

373
00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:17,220
I remember feeling a bit
confused as to why

374
00:21:17,220 --> 00:21:18,940
what Brando and everyone
had it in for me for.

375
00:21:19,119 --> 00:21:20,759
Certainly New Line couldn't
wait to get rid of me.

376
00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:25,200
Knowing that the odds were stacked against
me I resorted to witchcraft.

377
00:21:27,039 --> 00:21:30,099
At that point in time I was friendly
with this warlock chappie.

378
00:21:30,220 --> 00:21:31,220
It's in England.

379
00:21:31,399 --> 00:21:34,460
Dr. Edward James Featherstone,
commonly known as Skip.

380
00:21:34,700 --> 00:21:38,279
So Skip had been shown to demonstrate
his ability to fix things, to

381
00:21:38,279 --> 00:21:41,440
do invisible mending before so I said
my god Skip you've got to help me.

382
00:21:42,179 --> 00:21:43,259
You've got to save my movie.

383
00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:46,639
At the exact same time I went into
the meeting on the other

384
00:21:46,639 --> 00:21:49,720
side of the world Skip convened
his coven, cut his arm, drew a

385
00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:53,299
sigil and did some kind of routine
to fix it and make it all right.

386
00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:55,899
Simultaneously I was driven with the

387
00:21:55,899 --> 00:21:57,859
big old limo that was part
of the contract.

388
00:21:58,039 --> 00:22:00,379
Brando's house was at the top
of Mulholland on the left.

389
00:22:00,559 --> 00:22:02,000
Joe Nicholson's house is on the right.

390
00:22:02,460 --> 00:22:05,019
Brando's house was surrounded
by a very dense

391
00:22:05,019 --> 00:22:07,879
bamboo enclosure which screened
the house from the road.

392
00:22:08,420 --> 00:22:11,619
The bamboos were full of CCTV
cameras and eventually

393
00:22:11,619 --> 00:22:15,119
the gates slid open and I was
admitted to the compound.

394
00:22:15,500 --> 00:22:18,740
He had these trained dog padding
around which were trained to

395
00:22:18,740 --> 00:22:21,819
attack anything he pointed his laser
pencil at because I have

396
00:22:21,819 --> 00:22:24,740
fond memories of Brando drug pointing
at things with his laser

397
00:22:24,740 --> 00:22:29,099
pencil and getting the attack dogs
to attack the little red dart.

398
00:22:29,500 --> 00:22:32,599
New Line sent a lady named
Ruth Vitale with me.

399
00:22:33,019 --> 00:22:36,139
I stayed pretty quiet during the
first part of the meeting.

400
00:22:37,179 --> 00:22:43,179
Ruth was sweating and found
it very stuffy in there.

401
00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:46,539
Brando turned on the air conditioning.

402
00:22:46,899 --> 00:22:49,859
She remarked at one point that if
you turn that up any higher

403
00:22:49,859 --> 00:22:54,460
I'll fall asleep and he kept doing
it and after about 15 minutes

404
00:22:54,460 --> 00:22:59,319
or so Ruth was fast asleep and at which
point we began the conversation.

405
00:22:59,740 --> 00:23:03,079
I'd done enough research to
be able to engage him on,

406
00:23:03,859 --> 00:23:08,480
I guess, environmental and
scientific grounds and

407
00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:10,720
then there's the whole weird
Sir Henry Morton Stanley

408
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:14,639
connection which feeds back into
the the character of Kurtz.

409
00:23:14,699 --> 00:23:16,839
To begin with he was still pretty
interested in Kurtz

410
00:23:16,839 --> 00:23:20,920
so we were able to slide backwards
into the gestations

411
00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:23,659
of the character, the initial
argument between Conrad

412
00:23:23,659 --> 00:23:26,679
and Wells and he was extremely nice
to me during the meeting.

413
00:23:27,079 --> 00:23:30,019
I was never really sure why he took
a shine to me the way he did.

414
00:23:30,139 --> 00:23:32,259
It was very confusing for
New Line because it was

415
00:23:32,259 --> 00:23:34,599
not the outcome they've been
expecting and it was

416
00:23:34,599 --> 00:23:37,259
confusing for Ruth Vitale because
she'd slept through it.

417
00:23:37,500 --> 00:23:39,619
There's a very strong possibility
that it may have been

418
00:23:39,619 --> 00:23:43,400
voodoo or some kind of magical
interference on Skip's

419
00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:46,619
behalf but the next thing I
knew Ron Polanski was out

420
00:23:46,619 --> 00:23:49,119
and Brando was only going to do
the movie if I was on board.

421
00:23:51,539 --> 00:23:54,679
Brando's a big name but he's
not big box-office so then

422
00:23:54,679 --> 00:23:56,779
it was necessary to bring
a box-office draw so we

423
00:23:56,779 --> 00:24:00,019
immediately went after Bruce Willis
for the role of a castaway.

424
00:24:01,199 --> 00:24:03,519
Bruce was looking for something
different to do at that point

425
00:24:03,519 --> 00:24:06,920
in time, it was immediately pre
Sixth Sense and really liked

426
00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:09,179
the script and liked everyone else
wanted to work with Brando.

427
00:24:09,339 --> 00:24:12,139
One of those serendipity things
I ran into James Woods in the

428
00:24:12,139 --> 00:24:17,819
restaurant, got on well with James
Woods, gave him the script.

429
00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:20,720
Next thing you know James Woods
was in for Montgomery.

430
00:24:21,659 --> 00:24:23,859
We had pretty much the
dream cast which was

431
00:24:23,859 --> 00:24:25,940
Marlon Brando, Bruce Willis
and James Woods.

432
00:24:26,279 --> 00:24:28,639
We then set out to find the island.

433
00:24:29,079 --> 00:24:33,359
After a lot of globe-trotting
I ended up in far north

434
00:24:33,359 --> 00:24:37,039
Queensland and I chose Cape Tribulation
because there was a

435
00:24:37,039 --> 00:24:40,400
huge triangular mountain volcano
thing in the middle of it all

436
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:43,699
which I figured I could use to anchor together
the geography of the island.

437
00:24:44,159 --> 00:24:46,960
I found a way of selecting the different
locations so the volcano

438
00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:50,359
mountain was always vaguely in the
background and matched it to

439
00:24:50,359 --> 00:24:54,599
another atoll so that we could create the
illusion that it was all one place.

440
00:24:55,220 --> 00:24:58,720
Simultaneously a colossal makeup
effects effort was going on

441
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:02,299
where we had the attention of all the
kids in the Stan Winston studios.

442
00:25:02,539 --> 00:25:05,039
I was one of the few if not the only

443
00:25:05,039 --> 00:25:07,839
person in the studio who
knew who Richard was.

444
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:10,980
You know I'd seen Hardware, I'd
seen Dust Devil and you know I

445
00:25:10,980 --> 00:25:14,519
was interested in his quirky little
movies he was making and

446
00:25:14,519 --> 00:25:17,319
he came in with these very psychedelic
drawings of you know

447
00:25:17,319 --> 00:25:20,619
animal people running around with
machine guns and hospital

448
00:25:20,619 --> 00:25:24,940
scrubs and everything and and very
colorful and very like out

449
00:25:24,940 --> 00:25:30,420
there and we had a team of folks that
set out to design the characters.

450
00:25:30,619 --> 00:25:32,980
Crash McCreary does these
amazingly detailed

451
00:25:32,980 --> 00:25:36,059
pencils and he did the Sayer
of the Law, he did

452
00:25:36,500 --> 00:25:40,480
Lomai, I did designs for Buffalo Man

453
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:42,619
and and the Pig Ladies.

454
00:25:42,900 --> 00:25:45,199
Everybody chipped in and
just bashed ideas

455
00:25:45,199 --> 00:25:48,900
around until we until we
settled on things.

456
00:25:49,500 --> 00:25:53,500
♪

457
00:25:53,949 --> 00:25:56,990
He was, you know, right off
the bat, was showing me

458
00:25:56,990 --> 00:26:00,629
the storyboards and the character
designs from Stan

459
00:26:00,629 --> 00:26:04,450
Winston, and he was so, so

460
00:26:04,829 --> 00:26:06,690
excited and so passionate,

461
00:26:06,889 --> 00:26:09,710
and it had been so many years
in the making at that point.

462
00:26:09,809 --> 00:26:11,889
We talked about the character,
and he said, you know,

463
00:26:11,950 --> 00:26:14,789
it's actually, I want to, you
know, the story's like,

464
00:26:14,829 --> 00:26:19,389
he is the, he is Brando's favorite,
he is the master

465
00:26:19,389 --> 00:26:22,509
dog, basically he's the only one
that actually understands art.

466
00:26:22,509 --> 00:26:25,930
He knows Shakespeare, he knows
how to recite poems,

467
00:26:26,129 --> 00:26:29,049
and I got really excited because
I thought, God, you

468
00:26:29,049 --> 00:26:32,289
know, it's like, this is actually
the best part of the movie.

469
00:26:32,529 --> 00:26:35,509
In the meantime, New Line,
you know, tried

470
00:26:35,509 --> 00:26:37,509
in different ways to contain
the material.

471
00:26:38,029 --> 00:26:41,869
I remember being called into an emergency
meeting of which they really

472
00:26:41,869 --> 00:26:46,509
were going to draw the line and try to
get me to humanize the cat lady.

473
00:26:46,509 --> 00:26:50,409
When Prendick initially seduces
her, she's got six nipples and

474
00:26:50,409 --> 00:26:53,389
her pubes kind of grow all over her
thighs and up her chest and

475
00:26:53,389 --> 00:26:57,029
stuff, and there's the celebrated
moment where he's working his

476
00:26:57,029 --> 00:26:59,809
way down from one nipple to the next
and realizes along the way

477
00:26:59,809 --> 00:27:04,569
that she's not human, which really upset
them, really upset Ruth Vitale.

478
00:27:05,629 --> 00:27:08,529
She said that it would upset menopausal
women all over America.

479
00:27:08,929 --> 00:27:11,629
We went through a couple of successive
drafts with Waylon

480
00:27:11,629 --> 00:27:15,649
Green, the writer of The Wild Bunch,
at which point I could

481
00:27:16,029 --> 00:27:18,509
justifiably say that even leaving
myself out of the equation,

482
00:27:18,750 --> 00:27:21,490
that the finished product was from
the combined talents who

483
00:27:21,490 --> 00:27:24,690
brought the world The Wild Bunch, Apocalypse
Now, and The Time Machine.

484
00:27:25,309 --> 00:27:28,450
It was a script we were extremely
confident in, that

485
00:27:28,450 --> 00:27:31,690
we thought would be some sort
of milestone in the genre.

486
00:27:33,789 --> 00:27:37,509
We shot some background footage
that was going to work on

487
00:27:37,509 --> 00:27:42,450
monitors, and we spent a day in a
hospital doing bits and pieces.

488
00:27:42,450 --> 00:27:45,129
There was a scene with Barbara
Still, which was

489
00:27:46,029 --> 00:27:49,490
filmed in Los Angeles, Barbara
Still and A Ring of Time.

490
00:27:49,889 --> 00:27:53,389
Just a very low-key day with
a very small crew, and I

491
00:27:53,389 --> 00:27:57,349
could just tell by the way that
he was shooting what he

492
00:27:57,349 --> 00:28:00,429
was shooting, how he was relating
to the crew, that

493
00:28:01,929 --> 00:28:07,009
once he had actors and a big crew,
it might have some problems.

494
00:28:07,009 --> 00:28:11,129
We all sort of said oh-oh
to each other silently,

495
00:28:11,329 --> 00:28:15,529
because we were all supportive of
him and wanted him to do well.

496
00:28:16,589 --> 00:28:19,769
I think Richard was in a rather
squished hotel initially,

497
00:28:19,950 --> 00:28:23,190
but when it was suggested that
I go over to Los Angeles

498
00:28:23,190 --> 00:28:26,990
and work with him in a hotel,
I think they then decided

499
00:28:26,990 --> 00:28:29,250
that they'd actually have to move
into a slightly cheaper hotel.

500
00:28:29,470 --> 00:28:34,409
So they said, as a savings,
Richard, we'd

501
00:28:34,409 --> 00:28:36,509
like to put you into the
Oakwood Apartments.

502
00:28:36,509 --> 00:28:39,450
It's a lot cheaper and you'll
be able to cook.

503
00:28:39,670 --> 00:28:40,670
Do you mind?

504
00:28:40,849 --> 00:28:41,849
And he said, that's fine.

505
00:28:42,429 --> 00:28:46,250
A small but telling problem was
that I don't actually drive.

506
00:28:46,490 --> 00:28:49,649
I'd been living in London for 20
years and was suddenly plonked

507
00:28:49,649 --> 00:28:53,329
down in the city where there was no
such thing as public transport.

508
00:28:54,429 --> 00:28:58,289
This issue of trying to get from A to B
continued throughout the production.

509
00:28:58,829 --> 00:29:01,329
Meetings would happen without anyone
telling me they were going on.

510
00:29:01,729 --> 00:29:04,710
And in point of fact, I became
increasingly paranoid,

511
00:29:04,909 --> 00:29:08,369
thinking that I was being deliberately
kept out of the meetings.

512
00:29:08,950 --> 00:29:11,789
About two in the morning
of that same day, I

513
00:29:11,789 --> 00:29:15,089
got a call from Richard saying
it's an emergency.

514
00:29:15,089 --> 00:29:16,750
I have to move.

515
00:29:16,829 --> 00:29:20,009
I can't stay in that place
one minute longer.

516
00:29:20,289 --> 00:29:21,369
And I said, where are you?

517
00:29:21,409 --> 00:29:22,889
And he said, I'm in Hollywood.

518
00:29:22,970 --> 00:29:26,470
I've walked from Burbank to Hollywood

519
00:29:26,470 --> 00:29:28,529
and I don't know where
to go or what to do.

520
00:29:29,089 --> 00:29:31,009
And I said, where are
you in Hollywood?

521
00:29:31,210 --> 00:29:32,210
And he says, I don't know.

522
00:29:32,690 --> 00:29:36,329
So I think that was when
I said to myself, oh.

523
00:29:38,599 --> 00:29:42,139
A number of things went wrong
in the pre-production period

524
00:29:42,559 --> 00:29:47,759
really the the beginning of the
end the death knell was when

525
00:29:48,439 --> 00:29:53,480
Bruce divorced Danny Decided for
various complicated personal

526
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:57,379
legal reasons that he could not leave
America for the next six months.

527
00:29:57,679 --> 00:30:02,519
I then made another strategic error I

528
00:30:02,519 --> 00:30:05,779
met Val Kilmer Val Kilmer

529
00:30:06,259 --> 00:30:11,019
was a big star then and so the film
all of a sudden became a 35

530
00:30:11,019 --> 00:30:15,919
million dollar movie which at that time
was like 70 million dollars today.

531
00:30:16,339 --> 00:30:18,480
So it was a big movie which was

532
00:30:19,039 --> 00:30:22,500
far Greater and its demands and

533
00:30:22,500 --> 00:30:26,339
its ambition all of which worked
Okay, until I was urgently

534
00:30:26,339 --> 00:30:30,139
summoned from the island to a meeting
with Val in Tokyo where

535
00:30:30,139 --> 00:30:34,379
Val was for the Batman forever
premiere Val was then at the

536
00:30:34,379 --> 00:30:37,099
height of his powers surrounded
by adoring Japanese fans

537
00:30:38,579 --> 00:30:43,639
Behaving I thought very arrogantly
indeed towards them Val had

538
00:30:43,639 --> 00:30:45,599
decided that his life was too busy to

539
00:30:45,599 --> 00:30:49,199
devote as long as we needed
him for to to dr.

540
00:30:49,419 --> 00:30:54,419
Moreau Val demanded 40% fewer
shooting days I was told in

541
00:30:54,419 --> 00:30:57,240
no uncertain terms that after
the Bruce Willis debacle if

542
00:30:57,240 --> 00:31:00,799
Val left the ship New line would
probably close the project

543
00:31:00,799 --> 00:31:03,539
down and would probably go back
to the turnaround at this

544
00:31:03,539 --> 00:31:05,559
stage I was already building
the big house on the island

545
00:31:05,559 --> 00:31:09,039
and was determined to go ahead I knew
that we had to somehow solve this.

546
00:31:09,539 --> 00:31:14,500
I had a very bad dream that night
in the hotel in Tokyo I remember

547
00:31:14,500 --> 00:31:17,039
wake one of those nights waking
up and feeling that there was

548
00:31:18,099 --> 00:31:21,519
Something in the room sitting on my
chest And that sense of being

549
00:31:21,519 --> 00:31:25,759
unable to scream or breathe and something
banging on the door The

550
00:31:25,759 --> 00:31:29,000
door seemed to be trembling and shivering
and at the same time was

551
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:31,799
really being crushed or suffocated
in the bed It was a very

552
00:31:31,799 --> 00:31:35,480
unpleasant nightmare what they call
them the old hag or nocturnal

553
00:31:35,480 --> 00:31:40,519
sleep paralysis Richard came back and
he seemed a bit Flustered but

554
00:31:40,519 --> 00:31:44,199
he wouldn't tell me what he was flustered
about But so I think he

555
00:31:44,799 --> 00:31:49,179
been getting a bit of a hard time from
Val Val calls up Mike DeLuca

556
00:31:49,179 --> 00:31:53,019
says I want to talk to you and he said
some breakfast for DeLuca at

557
00:31:53,019 --> 00:31:56,079
the Bel Air Hotel Val
is sitting there Val

558
00:31:56,079 --> 00:31:59,960
says I'm very busy and I don't
have a lot of time.

559
00:32:00,059 --> 00:32:04,519
So don't talk to me Just listen
and he goes on to say I know I

560
00:32:04,519 --> 00:32:08,379
took this role, but I don't like
the role anymore I then came up

561
00:32:08,379 --> 00:32:12,480
with the idea of Talking Val into

562
00:32:13,199 --> 00:32:15,319
Switching roles with the James

563
00:32:15,319 --> 00:32:19,039
Woods character to no longer being
the lead man, but playing the

564
00:32:19,039 --> 00:32:22,960
part of the morose Apprentice or
his sidekick instead which

565
00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:26,339
automatically gave him 40% fewer shooting
days It meant we had to

566
00:32:26,339 --> 00:32:29,579
say goodbye to James Woods, which
was very unfortunate We then

567
00:32:29,579 --> 00:32:33,839
needed a new leading man and we ended
up with an individual named

568
00:32:33,839 --> 00:32:37,079
Rob Morrow Who was then
hot from quiz show and

569
00:32:37,079 --> 00:32:39,319
from a television show called
Northern Exposure?

570
00:32:39,939 --> 00:32:43,199
I was planning to take the summer
off and I got a kind of

571
00:32:43,199 --> 00:32:47,500
sudden call from my agent at the
time Arnold Rifkin and There

572
00:32:47,979 --> 00:32:51,159
were this movie that they were
doing I was familiar with the

573
00:32:51,159 --> 00:32:55,139
HGL story, you know And so as
soon as they said it I was

574
00:32:55,139 --> 00:32:57,419
intrigued, you know Next
thing I know I

575
00:32:57,419 --> 00:33:00,039
was flying down to Cairns
to shoot the movie.

576
00:33:00,139 --> 00:33:04,619
I was doing the budget with some
Production people from new line

577
00:33:04,619 --> 00:33:07,339
and when we got to the
director section

578
00:33:07,339 --> 00:33:10,719
as a joke half joke, I said

579
00:33:10,719 --> 00:33:14,299
well, you know, we better put in the
contingency of a million and a

580
00:33:14,299 --> 00:33:18,559
half for another director because I don't
think this is gonna work out.

581
00:33:19,059 --> 00:33:23,079
I guess I thought that I could
always Run to Brando for

582
00:33:23,079 --> 00:33:26,960
backup if I got into trouble what
I suggested and what they

583
00:33:27,500 --> 00:33:32,059
agreed with is that we go down
to Australia way far in

584
00:33:32,059 --> 00:33:36,599
advance and just basically live
there and let him settle in

585
00:33:36,599 --> 00:33:41,519
and get used to the place and Wander around
and not have a lot of pressure

586
00:33:42,500 --> 00:33:47,500
♪

587
00:33:48,599 --> 00:33:51,839
There was no television or radio
or phones or anything.

588
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:55,379
It was just absolute pristine beauty.

589
00:33:56,380 --> 00:33:57,959
I thought Richard's script
was fantastic.

590
00:33:58,399 --> 00:34:03,799
And he was this guy with long black
hair, a white Panama hat, a

591
00:34:03,799 --> 00:34:09,799
white linen suit, and I believe sand
shoes, carrying a carpet bag.

592
00:34:10,659 --> 00:34:11,659
That was all his luggage.

593
00:34:12,159 --> 00:34:16,239
This is a guy who's coming to direct our
film for months and months and months.

594
00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:19,199
We knew as soon as we
met the guy, hello,

595
00:34:19,519 --> 00:34:21,000
we've got something different
coming on here.

596
00:34:21,759 --> 00:34:25,920
I know that when I was originally
asked to go over to Cairns, part

597
00:34:25,920 --> 00:34:28,860
of the whole idea, I think, was that
it was felt that Richard was

598
00:34:28,860 --> 00:34:32,819
feeling quite isolated and that within
a storyboard process he'd

599
00:34:32,819 --> 00:34:37,239
actually have somebody he knew quite
well he could work with, which

600
00:34:37,239 --> 00:34:41,799
would probably act as a sort of soul for
the stresses he may have been under.

601
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:46,500
We then started going after
the best people.

602
00:34:47,119 --> 00:34:49,380
Hands down the worst audition that I'd

603
00:34:49,380 --> 00:34:51,920
ever had, ever done, ever
been involved in.

604
00:34:51,980 --> 00:34:55,460
Had to walk around making
stupid animal noises,

605
00:34:56,579 --> 00:34:58,559
pigs, all that kind of stuff.

606
00:34:59,920 --> 00:35:01,519
Said these stupid lines.

607
00:35:01,779 --> 00:35:05,279
There was no kind of process as an actor
that you can get your teeth into.

608
00:35:05,619 --> 00:35:07,519
I rang my agent straightaway
afterwards and said

609
00:35:07,519 --> 00:35:09,339
don't ever send me for anything
like that again.

610
00:35:09,339 --> 00:35:10,380
That was shit.

611
00:35:10,779 --> 00:35:11,839
This is not acting.

612
00:35:12,039 --> 00:35:13,039
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

613
00:35:15,079 --> 00:35:19,119
Then I got a phone call a couple
of, about two weeks later

614
00:35:19,119 --> 00:35:23,239
from the actual make-up, Stan Winston's
make-up crew saying

615
00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:28,980
we need you in tomorrow for a plaster
cast and da, da, da, da, da.

616
00:35:29,299 --> 00:35:30,299
And I got the part.

617
00:35:31,500 --> 00:35:36,500
♪

618
00:35:36,750 --> 00:35:41,750
♪

619
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:45,650
♪

620
00:35:45,650 --> 00:35:49,910
Everyone in the cast was a peculiar
shape or size, you know.

621
00:35:50,010 --> 00:35:52,910
There were very tall people playing
animals that were tall.

622
00:35:52,990 --> 00:35:55,010
There were very short people playing
animals that were short.

623
00:35:55,349 --> 00:35:56,849
There was fat people, thin people.

624
00:35:58,030 --> 00:36:00,829
The prosthetics then enhanced their
particular physicalities.

625
00:36:01,110 --> 00:36:04,090
The pig women had their real
breasts out and then a sow,

626
00:36:04,250 --> 00:36:07,110
three other pairs of breasts, prosthetically
underneath their own.

627
00:36:07,869 --> 00:36:10,150
There were some very bizarre
looking creatures around.

628
00:36:10,570 --> 00:36:13,670
We had the shortest man on earth,
Nelson De La Rosa, who we came

629
00:36:13,670 --> 00:36:17,190
across in a daytime TV show in San
Domingo, dancing the majao majao.

630
00:36:17,230 --> 00:36:22,550
A friend of ours was watching
some Spanish talent show

631
00:36:24,050 --> 00:36:26,889
and saw him and he had this little
act that he would do.

632
00:36:26,990 --> 00:36:28,230
He'd go on stage and dance.

633
00:36:28,550 --> 00:36:31,030
So we saw him and we
were like, wow, he

634
00:36:31,030 --> 00:36:33,769
would be great to do a
monster makeup on.

635
00:36:33,889 --> 00:36:37,070
So we called up his agent and me
and a friend of mine got to

636
00:36:37,070 --> 00:36:41,150
go to Dominican Republic to life
cast him, to body cast him.

637
00:36:41,650 --> 00:36:43,610
Come to find out, he was like a huge

638
00:36:43,610 --> 00:36:47,150
celebrity over there, like Michael
Jackson celebrity.

639
00:36:47,610 --> 00:36:51,730
And yeah, we just spent the day
in our hotel room body casting

640
00:36:51,730 --> 00:36:56,570
him and head casting him and he was
so excited to do this movie.

641
00:36:56,690 --> 00:37:01,369
But I think he was expecting
to be like a main monster.

642
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:07,000
♪

643
00:37:07,250 --> 00:37:12,250
♪

644
00:37:13,690 --> 00:37:17,289
Richard was focusing on
the creatures, he

645
00:37:17,289 --> 00:37:19,929
was a great student of anthropology.

646
00:37:20,349 --> 00:37:24,690
We had a dehumanizing process that
we were working on, something

647
00:37:24,690 --> 00:37:28,650
that we came up with a guy called
Peter Elliott, who was the

648
00:37:28,650 --> 00:37:32,030
animal behaviorist of Gorillas in the Mist
and various other gorilla movies.

649
00:37:32,710 --> 00:37:35,489
And we started a training
program to train our

650
00:37:35,489 --> 00:37:38,829
extras and our beast people to
act like proper animals.

651
00:37:39,429 --> 00:37:44,230
This went on for actually months before
the movie was due to shoot.

652
00:37:44,469 --> 00:37:47,489
I'd start by getting them to look at

653
00:37:47,489 --> 00:37:50,769
footage and rehearsing them
as the real animal.

654
00:37:51,030 --> 00:37:54,010
On all fours, like the pigs
being real pigs, the fact

655
00:37:54,010 --> 00:37:57,130
that they're rutting and the
sounds they make, and

656
00:37:57,730 --> 00:38:00,610
getting to know them as much as possible
about the real animal.

657
00:38:00,829 --> 00:38:01,829
We'd have stuff like...

658
00:38:04,789 --> 00:38:10,150
The most immediately visual one, I guess,
is the guy playing the hyena.

659
00:38:10,469 --> 00:38:13,730
If you look at their backbone, they've
got that sort of pride and

660
00:38:13,730 --> 00:38:18,349
evil thing, which gave him that sort
of lovely hunchback, which gave

661
00:38:18,349 --> 00:38:20,650
him that shape, and it gave him a nice

662
00:38:21,150 --> 00:38:24,369
arc to the way he used his head.

663
00:38:24,670 --> 00:38:29,030
I think they were initially a little
apprehensive, but once

664
00:38:29,030 --> 00:38:32,530
we started rehearsals, they threw
themselves into it completely.

665
00:38:32,869 --> 00:38:35,269
Also, we were working with the local

666
00:38:35,269 --> 00:38:38,610
Aboriginal community and with
the Etrobrian Islanders.

667
00:38:39,130 --> 00:38:41,789
I wanted to make certain the
locals didn't come to hate

668
00:38:41,789 --> 00:38:44,969
us, so I wanted to make certain
that we gave a lot of work

669
00:38:44,969 --> 00:38:49,590
to the local community and appointed
the buffalo man, a

670
00:38:49,590 --> 00:38:54,829
guy called David Hudson, as the main
go-between with the Aboriginal

671
00:38:55,329 --> 00:39:00,329
♪

672
00:39:00,579 --> 00:39:01,960
♪

673
00:39:02,539 --> 00:39:07,279
very interested in who I was and Aboriginal
language and the didgeridoo and

674
00:39:07,279 --> 00:39:08,559
♪

675
00:39:08,559 --> 00:39:11,719
general. You've got to understand
where this bloke's coming from.

676
00:39:11,779 --> 00:39:13,879
You know, he comes from London.

677
00:39:14,119 --> 00:39:16,699
He's in now rainforest country.

678
00:39:16,819 --> 00:39:17,960
He's on the Great Barrier Reef.

679
00:39:18,759 --> 00:39:21,739
But we all got on very
well, Richard and I.

680
00:39:21,819 --> 00:39:23,859
He was very easy to work with.

681
00:39:25,059 --> 00:39:27,119
His direction was precise.

682
00:39:27,119 --> 00:39:30,119
He was definitely very passionate
about the picture.

683
00:39:30,399 --> 00:39:31,899
He showed me all the
props and was like,

684
00:39:31,960 --> 00:39:33,719
look at this, you know,
this is my movie.

685
00:39:33,779 --> 00:39:36,519
Isn't it cool? When people say
he's crazy, I actually

686
00:39:36,519 --> 00:39:39,599
experienced Richard as a really
nice, warm-hearted

687
00:39:39,599 --> 00:39:44,039
guy, like a kid that was so happy
that his dream came true.

688
00:39:44,179 --> 00:39:45,839
Like he was like a kid
in a candy store.

689
00:39:46,919 --> 00:39:47,919
He was great.

690
00:39:47,980 --> 00:39:52,059
He was affable and he was very,
he was clearly enthusiastic.

691
00:39:52,239 --> 00:39:53,359
-He was young.
-He was green.

692
00:39:53,359 --> 00:39:54,619
He was so happy.

693
00:39:55,319 --> 00:39:57,219
You know, he was just
grinning ear to ear

694
00:39:57,219 --> 00:39:59,579
and just like, oh, I can't
wait to get started.

695
00:39:59,939 --> 00:40:04,899
You know, it was really, that was the
best part of that film, definitely.

696
00:40:05,619 --> 00:40:06,960
I could see that he liked what I was

697
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:09,119
doing in the, in the, through
the rehearsal.

698
00:40:10,099 --> 00:40:14,899
And he, to me actually, it seemed that

699
00:40:14,899 --> 00:40:17,219
he knew exactly what he wanted.

700
00:40:18,199 --> 00:40:20,399
Like what kind of look he
wanted for the movie.

701
00:40:21,139 --> 00:40:26,379
He rented a house out in, in the suburbs
of Cairns in North Queensland.

702
00:40:27,699 --> 00:40:29,500
Fabulous house, like a tree house.

703
00:40:29,879 --> 00:40:35,019
It was all wood with branches sprouting
out and walkways going here.

704
00:40:35,139 --> 00:40:36,419
Fantastic place.

705
00:40:37,159 --> 00:40:39,139
But he would hardly ever
come out of it.

706
00:40:39,279 --> 00:40:43,319
He really wouldn't interact with us in the
normal way you do in pre-production.

707
00:40:43,519 --> 00:40:46,239
He would come on surveys
and talk to people.

708
00:40:46,419 --> 00:40:48,379
But as a leader, as a
director, he really

709
00:40:49,039 --> 00:40:52,339
didn't get involved and
stayed in his house.

710
00:40:52,599 --> 00:40:57,379
We'd have to drag him to look at
locations and even meetings.

711
00:40:58,000 --> 00:40:59,439
He wouldn't, he wouldn't
come to meetings.

712
00:40:59,899 --> 00:41:04,739
And Tim Zimmerman, the producer, used
to send me around to try and

713
00:41:04,739 --> 00:41:08,279
drag him back because I had the closest
rapport with him, I guess.

714
00:41:08,539 --> 00:41:11,019
And we became, like, I
was, we were friends.

715
00:41:11,219 --> 00:41:13,919
I really liked the guy a lot, but
I kept saying to him, hey,

716
00:41:14,059 --> 00:41:17,000
Richard, you got to go to meetings if
you're going to make this movie.

717
00:41:17,079 --> 00:41:18,699
And he, well, can't they
all come around here?

718
00:41:18,819 --> 00:41:20,179
I said, no, it doesn't work that way.

719
00:41:20,739 --> 00:41:22,939
You've got to come to
the studio and talk.

720
00:41:23,099 --> 00:41:26,319
He would take a scene and then
he would have the sketch

721
00:41:26,319 --> 00:41:32,259
artists do the drawings for the
scene and have them Xeroxed.

722
00:41:32,279 --> 00:41:34,819
And he'd give them to
the crew as a way of

723
00:41:34,819 --> 00:41:38,599
communicating as opposed to having
production meetings.

724
00:41:39,239 --> 00:41:43,019
I think that he did have
visions, whether

725
00:41:43,019 --> 00:41:45,439
they were clear, I'm not so sure.

726
00:41:46,159 --> 00:41:47,439
He would probably say he did.

727
00:41:47,960 --> 00:41:51,719
Perhaps I misinterpreted
some of what he was

728
00:41:51,719 --> 00:41:54,819
saying, but I never felt they
were exactly clear.

729
00:41:54,879 --> 00:41:59,179
What I was led to believe was that
they were pretty much behind him.

730
00:41:59,380 --> 00:42:01,919
And, you know, he knew that
they were nervous about

731
00:42:01,919 --> 00:42:06,259
his youth and the fact that
this was such a big film.

732
00:42:06,259 --> 00:42:09,739
I think we managed to live the dream
for a surprising amount of time.

733
00:42:09,879 --> 00:42:14,000
None of us had any idea what
ended up, what was coming.

734
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:18,000
♪

735
00:42:18,150 --> 00:42:20,450
I guess the beginning of the end was

736
00:42:20,450 --> 00:42:23,170
Marlon's daughter, Cheyenne,
committed suicide.

737
00:42:23,750 --> 00:42:27,130
Brando was then on a project in
Ireland called Divine Rapture,

738
00:42:27,410 --> 00:42:30,710
which was meant to come directly
from that set to Doctor Moreau.

739
00:42:31,329 --> 00:42:35,690
Divine Rapture closed down, never to resume
shooting, was never finished.

740
00:42:35,990 --> 00:42:40,170
Brando was understandably
extremely upset because

741
00:42:40,170 --> 00:42:42,550
his entire family was self-destructing
around him.

742
00:42:43,730 --> 00:42:46,170
Not knowing whether he would
be able to make it for day

743
00:42:46,170 --> 00:42:48,090
one, in fact, knowing he wouldn't
make it for day one,

744
00:42:48,369 --> 00:42:50,210
and whether he would ever be
able to show up as Moreau,

745
00:42:50,590 --> 00:42:53,690
obviously it threw the entire future
of the project into doubt.

746
00:42:55,010 --> 00:42:58,910
We figured the only thing we could
do was to maybe shoot the scenes

747
00:42:58,910 --> 00:43:02,309
in the water or to start with the
boat scenes and the stuff that

748
00:43:02,309 --> 00:43:04,630
happens before they get to the island,
the hope that by the time we

749
00:43:04,630 --> 00:43:09,849
got to the island and got to the lab scenes,
that Doctor Moreau would be found.

750
00:43:10,690 --> 00:43:13,010
Up until I left, I mean,
everything was still in

751
00:43:13,010 --> 00:43:15,550
place, but Richard had already
said that he felt

752
00:43:15,550 --> 00:43:17,710
that the project was going to
be taken away from him.

753
00:43:17,809 --> 00:43:19,710
I no longer had any wealth or power.

754
00:43:20,090 --> 00:43:22,030
I didn't have any money in the
project, and if Brando

755
00:43:22,030 --> 00:43:24,329
wasn't going to show up, I couldn't
bring Brando to the project.

756
00:43:24,750 --> 00:43:27,970
The closer we got to production,
the more isolated

757
00:43:27,970 --> 00:43:31,130
he made himself, the more unavailable
he made himself.

758
00:43:31,349 --> 00:43:35,789
It was clear quickly that he might
have been in over his head, not

759
00:43:35,789 --> 00:43:40,369
because of anything except just a lot
of forces that were not aligned for

760
00:43:43,789 --> 00:43:46,870
began to darken around the island,
things started to go wrong.

761
00:43:47,090 --> 00:43:50,030
My PA got bit by a poisonous
spider that

762
00:43:50,030 --> 00:43:52,070
was living in a web underneath
a lampshade.

763
00:43:52,230 --> 00:43:54,490
She reached in to switch
the lampshade on and

764
00:43:54,490 --> 00:43:57,490
it bit her hand which caused
her flesh to melt.

765
00:43:57,630 --> 00:43:58,630
It was incurable.

766
00:43:58,630 --> 00:44:02,769
Back in London, Skip, the
Sufi warlock who had

767
00:44:02,769 --> 00:44:04,970
first fixed the whole thing
for me during the

768
00:44:04,970 --> 00:44:08,310
Brando meeting, he was a pretty
brilliant biochemist.

769
00:44:08,310 --> 00:44:12,010
Skip believed that the clay wall in
his laboratory had been too thin

770
00:44:12,010 --> 00:44:14,830
and that he'd accidentally become irradiated
during his experiments.

771
00:44:15,450 --> 00:44:17,670
But what happened was that his
bones started to crumble.

772
00:44:17,890 --> 00:44:21,910
One morning his hip dislocated, his leg
literally popped out of the socket.

773
00:44:22,250 --> 00:44:24,269
In hospital when they operated
he then caught

774
00:44:24,849 --> 00:44:28,450
necrotizing fascilitis, this
flesh-eating parasite.

775
00:44:28,750 --> 00:44:32,090
During that time every single one
of Skip's fixes came undone.

776
00:44:32,269 --> 00:44:34,350
Over in Ireland when I phoned
my mother to tell her what

777
00:44:34,350 --> 00:44:37,610
was going on, her house had just
been struck by lightning.

778
00:44:37,910 --> 00:44:39,950
Three fireballs had rolled
through the lounge.

779
00:44:40,090 --> 00:44:42,130
One jumped into the telephone,
one jumped into the

780
00:44:42,130 --> 00:44:44,350
hi-fi system and she says the
other went out the cat door.

781
00:44:44,610 --> 00:44:45,950
Shortly before the next
door neighbours

782
00:44:45,950 --> 00:44:48,370
claimed they saw a hyena
run across the road.

783
00:44:49,310 --> 00:44:51,730
Again, a hyena in Ireland doesn't
make any kind of sense.

784
00:44:51,990 --> 00:44:53,750
I noticed the first time
that the accommodation

785
00:44:53,750 --> 00:44:55,850
where we were staying had
hyena print wallpaper.

786
00:44:56,590 --> 00:44:58,550
The wallpaper was all
kind of looking at

787
00:44:58,550 --> 00:45:00,530
me with a hungry kind
of look in its eye.

788
00:45:01,450 --> 00:45:03,810
The relationship with Val
also became tense.

789
00:45:03,810 --> 00:45:06,570
This started the different attempts
to read the script.

790
00:45:06,690 --> 00:45:10,430
We all met at Richard's house and we're
trying to do this first scene.

791
00:45:10,550 --> 00:45:13,950
So I start, you know, being underfeared
and this whole like

792
00:45:13,950 --> 00:45:17,230
tempest thing and Val is just sitting
there smoking a cigarette.

793
00:45:18,670 --> 00:45:19,789
Wait, is this it?

794
00:45:19,910 --> 00:45:20,930
No, no, no, wait a minute.

795
00:45:21,050 --> 00:45:23,269
We can always cut it down
but he's still talking.

796
00:45:23,450 --> 00:45:24,450
Okay, okay, okay.

797
00:45:24,530 --> 00:45:25,769
Is this it? Is this it?

798
00:45:26,390 --> 00:45:27,390
He's saying all that?

799
00:45:27,510 --> 00:45:28,590
He's saying all that?
This is the first

800
00:45:28,590 --> 00:45:29,890
scene in the movie and
he's saying all that?

801
00:45:30,430 --> 00:45:31,430
Okay, well, okay.

802
00:45:31,690 --> 00:45:34,510
So I already know something,
like he didn't like it.

803
00:45:34,550 --> 00:45:37,630
He did not like that the movie would
start with me doing the tempest.

804
00:45:37,750 --> 00:45:40,130
And he's like, Richard, look,
I don't understand why

805
00:45:40,130 --> 00:45:42,970
this character Maling has to be
in the first scenes anyhow.

806
00:45:43,269 --> 00:45:44,269
I don't get it.

807
00:45:45,430 --> 00:45:47,490
And Richard was like, well,
he's your assistant.

808
00:45:47,769 --> 00:45:49,650
But look at his, look at the makeup.

809
00:45:49,830 --> 00:45:50,830
I mean, he looks like a monster.

810
00:45:50,990 --> 00:45:52,050
I mean, I don't, I don't buy it.

811
00:45:52,070 --> 00:45:53,110
I mean, like, and you know what?

812
00:45:53,130 --> 00:45:54,130
I don't need an assistant.

813
00:45:54,510 --> 00:45:56,170
And Richard stood his ground.

814
00:45:56,269 --> 00:45:57,510
He said, like, no, it's in the script.

815
00:45:57,510 --> 00:45:59,910
By the time Kilmer changed
parts and took on this

816
00:45:59,910 --> 00:46:03,830
other part of the drug-fucked
assistant to Marlon

817
00:46:03,830 --> 00:46:09,430
Brando's Dr. Moreau, he was
playing up a bit on set.

818
00:46:09,570 --> 00:46:12,050
He was just kind of being
a bit rude and abrasive.

819
00:46:13,450 --> 00:46:16,550
He, that was his character,
though, so fair go.

820
00:46:16,810 --> 00:46:19,769
Maybe that was the way
he prepared to be an

821
00:46:19,769 --> 00:46:21,970
arsehole, to, you know, act
like one off camera.

822
00:46:22,230 --> 00:46:25,130
So we started having strange
petty disagreements.

823
00:46:26,850 --> 00:46:29,630
We were shooting on a pier or
dock, and it was one of

824
00:46:29,630 --> 00:46:33,289
these scenes that had endlessly
been sketched and re-sketched.

825
00:46:33,289 --> 00:46:35,230
Richard is, OK, so let's do this.

826
00:46:35,330 --> 00:46:37,230
Kilmer says, OK, one, one
second, one second.

827
00:46:37,590 --> 00:46:39,590
I would like to know how you're
going to cut this together.

828
00:46:40,390 --> 00:46:42,750
And Richard said, well, you know,
the Pendrix character,

829
00:46:42,930 --> 00:46:45,789
he's in the ship, and he's going
to get hit on the head.

830
00:46:46,190 --> 00:46:47,190
We don't know who hit him.

831
00:46:47,289 --> 00:46:48,289
We just cut to black.

832
00:46:48,610 --> 00:46:50,390
Camera goes back, and then
you look at him,

833
00:46:50,410 --> 00:46:51,930
and you're like, what are
you doing on my ship?

834
00:46:51,970 --> 00:46:54,110
Or, you know, something like
that. And then they'll, you

835
00:46:54,110 --> 00:46:57,230
know, always with a cigarette,
you know, really super cool.

836
00:46:58,970 --> 00:47:01,390
Not even, you know, it's
not even sarcastic.

837
00:47:01,490 --> 00:47:04,250
It was always really cool,
you know, just, yeah.

838
00:47:05,590 --> 00:47:06,990
That's not going to work, man.

839
00:47:07,930 --> 00:47:11,850
So Richard, it's like a classic
thing, you know.

840
00:47:11,910 --> 00:47:13,350
Somebody gets hit on
the head, we cut to

841
00:47:13,350 --> 00:47:16,350
black, and then there's going
to be a time jump.

842
00:47:17,530 --> 00:47:19,870
Nah, that's not going to cut together.

843
00:47:19,870 --> 00:47:23,750
Richard went to give him
some direction, and Val

844
00:47:23,750 --> 00:47:28,130
said, Richard, directors stand
behind the cameras.

845
00:47:28,310 --> 00:47:29,750
Actors are in front of the camera.

846
00:47:30,150 --> 00:47:31,570
Now go stand behind the camera.

847
00:47:32,710 --> 00:47:37,310
And I was sitting there listening to
this, and I'm like, oh, my God.

848
00:47:38,050 --> 00:47:41,350
I mean, I really felt for Richard,
because I thought, this

849
00:47:41,350 --> 00:47:45,250
is not really, I mean, this is
not about the shoot anymore.

850
00:47:45,490 --> 00:47:46,490
This is a power game.

851
00:47:46,930 --> 00:47:49,630
And I think at that point,
Richard just completely

852
00:47:50,150 --> 00:47:53,090
lost it and forgot all about
the sketches and

853
00:47:53,950 --> 00:47:58,050
really couldn't, had a hard time
getting through the day.

854
00:47:58,330 --> 00:48:00,350
I think it was like late in
the movie, the scene we

855
00:48:00,350 --> 00:48:02,190
were shooting, it was like
all these mutants were

856
00:48:02,190 --> 00:48:06,030
coming around, and I was having to
shoot them and fight my way out.

857
00:48:06,250 --> 00:48:09,970
And I just remember being on the beach,
and I'm coming through, and

858
00:48:10,650 --> 00:48:14,670
I think I remembered no one was really
telling me anything, you know.

859
00:48:14,670 --> 00:48:16,230
They would just kind of
be like, OK, well,

860
00:48:16,289 --> 00:48:18,650
go out, you know, and work
your way up there.

861
00:48:18,990 --> 00:48:23,110
And, you know, and then I just would
find myself, you know, kind

862
00:48:23,110 --> 00:48:26,650
of making up stuff in the scene, you
know, making up stuff to do.

863
00:48:26,810 --> 00:48:29,230
He probably would have needed
a very good first AD

864
00:48:29,230 --> 00:48:32,050
that, you know, does all these
things for him, you know.

865
00:48:32,090 --> 00:48:35,010
And then so he can have his
vision, and then so

866
00:48:35,010 --> 00:48:37,230
he doesn't have to get into
these fights, you know.

867
00:48:37,329 --> 00:48:39,950
But then nobody helped him.

868
00:48:40,090 --> 00:48:43,510
That was my instinct, was always
to try to find the constituency

869
00:48:43,510 --> 00:48:47,350
that would support him, and then ultimately
I found there was no one.

870
00:48:47,530 --> 00:48:50,110
Reports started coming
back from the set,

871
00:48:50,730 --> 00:48:53,350
which was near Brisbane or
someplace like that,

872
00:48:55,910 --> 00:48:58,050
that Val Kilmer was sitting down, or

873
00:48:58,050 --> 00:48:59,789
somebody was sitting down
and wouldn't get up.

874
00:49:00,190 --> 00:49:02,810
The buzz is just, you know,
you walk through the hall

875
00:49:02,810 --> 00:49:05,810
and you say, did you hear
about, oh, my God, the

876
00:49:05,810 --> 00:49:08,990
Richard Stanley climbed into a tree
today and wouldn't come down.

877
00:49:09,829 --> 00:49:10,829
What?

878
00:49:10,870 --> 00:49:12,450
-This was...
-Wait, wait, wait, wait.

879
00:49:12,530 --> 00:49:14,090
Back the gravy train up.

880
00:49:14,550 --> 00:49:17,789
When did he supposedly climb this
tree and not come down?

881
00:49:18,670 --> 00:49:20,650
At the end of the shooting day.

882
00:49:21,130 --> 00:49:24,390
He climbed a tree and
wouldn't come down.

883
00:49:24,650 --> 00:49:28,510
After shooting a long shoot day and
needing to get up at 5 a.m.

884
00:49:28,510 --> 00:49:29,510
to shoot the next day.

885
00:49:29,690 --> 00:49:30,690
No, I'm going to stay in a tree.

886
00:49:30,890 --> 00:49:31,890
That's insane.

887
00:49:32,190 --> 00:49:35,850
I think basically they all said,
look, he's the star, basically.

888
00:49:37,270 --> 00:49:38,390
He's what we...

889
00:49:38,390 --> 00:49:41,789
We hope that we're going to make back
our money because Kilmer is in it.

890
00:49:41,950 --> 00:49:43,750
Now it's part of the
budget, basically.

891
00:49:45,430 --> 00:49:47,130
And it doesn't matter who directs it.

892
00:49:47,329 --> 00:49:50,590
It's not about the vision, it's
about the name and the stars.

893
00:49:51,570 --> 00:49:52,870
I remember looking at the...

894
00:49:52,870 --> 00:49:56,010
overseeing the boat the day before
the shoot was meant to happen and

895
00:49:56,010 --> 00:50:00,789
Murray Boyd, the Australian location
manager, reassuring me about the

896
00:50:00,789 --> 00:50:03,390
weather, saying, don't worry, mate, it's
going to be flat as a millpond.

897
00:50:03,950 --> 00:50:07,410
Anyway, of course, on cue, we
were hit by a hurricane.

898
00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:11,660
It started to rain.

899
00:50:12,240 --> 00:50:14,720
They called a wrap and let's
get the gear off the beach

900
00:50:14,720 --> 00:50:17,079
and move out of here and I noticed
that the creek was

901
00:50:17,079 --> 00:50:21,740
starting to rise and the rain got
heavier and heavier and heavier.

902
00:50:22,440 --> 00:50:25,420
And I thought, couldn't rise
that much, could it?

903
00:50:26,059 --> 00:50:27,180
Well, it did.

904
00:50:28,059 --> 00:50:32,820
And four hours later, the set was completely
out in the Pacific Ocean.

905
00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:37,780
Being off camp tribulation in
a tramp freighter full of

906
00:50:37,780 --> 00:50:40,620
exotic animals in the middle of a
hurricane was a bad place to be.

907
00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:43,240
We were floundering around out
on the sea with Richard not

908
00:50:43,240 --> 00:50:46,180
really knowing what was going on,
or maybe he was knowing what

909
00:50:46,180 --> 00:50:51,700
was going on, but not able to convey
his directing to the right people.

910
00:50:51,920 --> 00:50:54,960
In the course of trying to get the animals
off the ship again, we were

911
00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:57,500
moving the puma in a cage from one ship
to another and I was trying to

912
00:50:57,500 --> 00:51:00,800
steady the cage, the puma was above me
and the fucking puma pissed on me.

913
00:51:01,420 --> 00:51:05,720
They had my suit which had been tailor
made by Prince Charles's tailors.

914
00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:12,580
Rob Morrow was in the
captain's cabin of

915
00:51:12,580 --> 00:51:15,620
the ship talking by a radio

916
00:51:15,620 --> 00:51:21,400
phone to his agent in LA, screaming
to get me off this laming picture.

917
00:51:21,580 --> 00:51:25,280
In those four days I started
sending SOSs to my

918
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:28,580
lawyer, saying this is looking
weird, there's bad

919
00:51:28,580 --> 00:51:32,560
stuff going on here, there's
bad vibes between people.

920
00:51:32,800 --> 00:51:35,620
He was calling me from Brisbane
and he said, we don't know

921
00:51:35,620 --> 00:51:38,620
each other and I'm very happy to
be working with you, etc, etc.

922
00:51:38,700 --> 00:51:39,900
Just kind of a little introduction.

923
00:51:40,480 --> 00:51:42,539
And then all of a sudden
he almost broke down.

924
00:51:42,640 --> 00:51:45,160
He said, this is totally insane.

925
00:51:45,660 --> 00:51:47,880
I cannot, cannot continue.

926
00:51:49,940 --> 00:51:51,519
I don't know what to do.

927
00:51:52,019 --> 00:51:54,800
I want to get back to my family
in the United States.

928
00:51:55,420 --> 00:51:56,620
I can't stand this.

929
00:51:56,700 --> 00:51:57,800
It's complete insanity.

930
00:51:58,440 --> 00:52:01,000
Would you please, please, please
let me out of this.

931
00:52:01,000 --> 00:52:04,960
I think there was a part of Mike DeLuca
that was amused by all this.

932
00:52:05,620 --> 00:52:09,960
I think there was a part of
several people's attitude.

933
00:52:10,700 --> 00:52:12,820
Let's just see how far this can go.

934
00:52:14,900 --> 00:52:17,660
It became increasingly obvious
that we couldn't really do

935
00:52:18,039 --> 00:52:21,660
anything that the only weather
cover sets we had that were

936
00:52:21,660 --> 00:52:25,860
completed were Moreau's laboratory
and The interiors of Moreau's

937
00:52:25,860 --> 00:52:27,119
house, but we didn't have Moreau We

938
00:52:27,119 --> 00:52:28,720
couldn't retreat into the
weather cover set.

939
00:52:29,019 --> 00:52:31,280
Richard was really bad on
these days And he was

940
00:52:31,280 --> 00:52:33,840
being hammered by the DP and
everyone was down on

941
00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:36,500
him, and he was extremely nervous
he was yelling at me.

942
00:52:36,619 --> 00:52:39,119
The day is just going by
and nothing's really

943
00:52:39,119 --> 00:52:44,000
happening and and And Finally I
see Richard walking around.

944
00:52:44,139 --> 00:52:45,680
I'm like, hey Richard. Well,
you know what's going on.

945
00:52:45,760 --> 00:52:48,440
He's he's frantically smoking
his cigarette, right?

946
00:52:48,519 --> 00:52:52,280
and it's just like You know,
I I must be seen every day

947
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:56,039
to be attempting to film something
and that was what he

948
00:52:56,039 --> 00:52:59,900
said And he walked away and I was
like What's happening here?

949
00:53:02,760 --> 00:53:08,639
The order finally came back from new
line to to down tools to wait

950
00:53:10,139 --> 00:53:14,559
Basically, the production was put on hold
which was the prelude to the end.

951
00:53:15,480 --> 00:53:21,119
I happen to be at a restaurant where
Val was at another table

952
00:53:21,119 --> 00:53:24,119
and he sort of summoned me over

953
00:53:24,659 --> 00:53:27,260
and started saying how this

954
00:53:27,260 --> 00:53:31,880
wasn't working for him and you
know something serious had to

955
00:53:31,880 --> 00:53:37,200
happen and and I must say I did
agree because it wasn't

956
00:53:37,200 --> 00:53:44,500
working and So I then called Mike

957
00:53:44,500 --> 00:53:47,440
DeLuca new line woke him up

958
00:53:47,440 --> 00:53:52,460
at 4 in the morning or something
and told him my sad story and

959
00:53:53,059 --> 00:53:57,420
He was kind of screaming at me and and he
said well, what do you want me to do?

960
00:53:57,460 --> 00:54:00,820
And I said, well, I you better
look at the footage and draw

961
00:54:00,820 --> 00:54:04,740
your own conclusions But my view
is you need to make a change

962
00:54:05,500 --> 00:54:11,150
♪

963
00:54:11,150 --> 00:54:12,970
I had to let Richard go.

964
00:54:14,630 --> 00:54:17,369
It was the only time in
my career I'd ever

965
00:54:17,929 --> 00:54:19,889
had the responsibility of
changing a director.

966
00:54:20,730 --> 00:54:22,070
And it was very difficult.

967
00:54:22,289 --> 00:54:24,250
It wasn't handled well at all.

968
00:54:26,450 --> 00:54:31,670
Sort of a call went to his agent,
and it was done that way.

969
00:54:33,010 --> 00:54:35,430
Not the manly way, you might say.

970
00:54:35,670 --> 00:54:36,869
They had to do it, I suppose.

971
00:54:36,869 --> 00:54:40,309
But I kind of felt I was
on his side, and

972
00:54:40,309 --> 00:54:42,450
I could feel that they
felt that as well.

973
00:54:42,550 --> 00:54:45,550
And I thought, Oh, I'd better be careful,
or they'll be firing me as well.

974
00:54:48,760 --> 00:54:52,019
Perusa, realising what had happened,
leapt up and gave an

975
00:54:52,019 --> 00:54:56,680
amazing speech to Tim, the line
producer, explaining to him

976
00:54:56,680 --> 00:55:02,320
exactly why it would be a disaster beyond
belief if they went down that route.

977
00:55:02,500 --> 00:55:07,680
I remember thinking, No,
this isn't real.

978
00:55:08,539 --> 00:55:09,720
There's some misunderstanding.

979
00:55:10,480 --> 00:55:11,660
They're going to work it out.

980
00:55:12,180 --> 00:55:13,400
Don't panic, Richard.

981
00:55:13,840 --> 00:55:17,200
In the course of it all, taking
it a bit too far, she

982
00:55:20,019 --> 00:55:22,880
threatened to cut her
own heart out of a

983
00:55:22,880 --> 00:55:26,840
sushi knife if New Line closed
the project down.

984
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:29,300
And I said, Well, I'm walking.

985
00:55:29,440 --> 00:55:31,860
I'm not staying. There's no
reason for me to be here.

986
00:55:33,860 --> 00:55:37,260
She ran out of the sushi restaurant,
jumped in the limo

987
00:55:37,260 --> 00:55:39,720
parked outside and told the driver
to take her to Sydney.

988
00:55:40,440 --> 00:55:43,539
She had insufficient grasp of the
geography of Australia, I

989
00:55:43,539 --> 00:55:47,200
think, to know that Sydney was on the
opposite side of the continent.

990
00:55:47,620 --> 00:55:48,620
I may have.

991
00:55:48,640 --> 00:55:49,640
I may have.

992
00:55:49,660 --> 00:55:52,280
I don't remember how I got there.

993
00:55:52,700 --> 00:55:55,100
The driver then drove her clear
across the country.

994
00:55:56,640 --> 00:55:59,920
He was a guy named Lewis, who had
previously been on the art

995
00:55:59,920 --> 00:56:03,100
department, who had been fired after
some kind of punch-up in

996
00:56:03,100 --> 00:56:06,480
art department, and had gotten back
onto the project as a driver.

997
00:56:06,980 --> 00:56:09,880
I was out of a job by the time
I had my second job.

998
00:56:09,960 --> 00:56:10,960
I had three jobs.

999
00:56:10,960 --> 00:56:12,220
The second one was the
production running.

1000
00:56:12,220 --> 00:56:15,740
I got sacked from that because
while I was all in

1001
00:56:15,740 --> 00:56:18,860
limbo, Farooza had contacted me and

1002
00:56:20,079 --> 00:56:22,840
said, What are you doing?

1003
00:56:23,460 --> 00:56:24,460
Do you want to come to Sydney?

1004
00:56:24,720 --> 00:56:26,400
I'm like, Sure, you know, let's go.

1005
00:56:27,000 --> 00:56:30,620
And when I got back, the production
didn't want to know me

1006
00:56:30,620 --> 00:56:34,200
because I'd sort of committed some
film faux pas, you know.

1007
00:56:34,539 --> 00:56:38,160
I just remember feeling absolutely

1008
00:56:39,860 --> 00:56:43,000
just bewildered and terrible.

1009
00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:45,900
I felt terrible for him, and I did.

1010
00:56:46,060 --> 00:56:49,940
I felt like this was the greatest
injustice and we should

1011
00:56:49,940 --> 00:56:53,760
call the Hollywood Reporter and
everyone should know that

1012
00:56:53,760 --> 00:56:57,840
this is what they're doing and, you
know, because he was my friend.

1013
00:56:58,420 --> 00:57:01,760
I went and saw him at his house and
he was in the middle of the

1014
00:57:01,760 --> 00:57:07,580
room just sitting there, paper spread
out everywhere, and he was a mess.

1015
00:57:07,960 --> 00:57:09,220
He was very paranoid.

1016
00:57:09,960 --> 00:57:11,300
He was very freaked out.

1017
00:57:11,300 --> 00:57:12,680
I don't think he was sleeping.

1018
00:57:13,660 --> 00:57:16,560
I mean, beyond upset.

1019
00:57:16,900 --> 00:57:19,580
He'd become quite immersed in
the whole project to that

1020
00:57:19,580 --> 00:57:23,200
point where he was living and
breathing Moreau and then

1021
00:57:23,200 --> 00:57:25,980
he'd just have that mood of, Oh, I
think he probably went a bit mad.

1022
00:57:27,220 --> 00:57:29,840
Who wouldn't have a complete
mental breakdown at

1023
00:57:29,840 --> 00:57:32,280
that point if that happened to
you, you know what I mean?

1024
00:57:33,780 --> 00:57:36,200
Because he was really, really manic.

1025
00:57:36,580 --> 00:57:40,640
I went back to my headquarters and
started spreading documents.

1026
00:57:40,640 --> 00:57:42,400
I was a little vindictive.

1027
00:57:42,420 --> 00:57:45,920
I also wanted to make it particularly
hard for them to make that film.

1028
00:57:46,380 --> 00:57:52,000
In my mind, I was going to leave
with him and the lawyers were

1029
00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:56,120
going to be hired and all the actors
would walk and we would

1030
00:57:56,120 --> 00:57:59,580
shut the production down because
everyone would be loyal to him.

1031
00:57:59,720 --> 00:58:03,760
New Line eventually basically offered
to pay me my full fee just

1032
00:58:03,760 --> 00:58:07,980
to shut up and go away, in return
for which I had to agree if the

1033
00:58:07,980 --> 00:58:11,000
project was revived,
not to come within,

1034
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:14,780
I think, 40km of the location.

1035
00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:17,140
We were waiting for Richard
for ages to come out

1036
00:58:17,140 --> 00:58:19,160
of his bungalow, but I'd
been told from the

1037
00:58:19,160 --> 00:58:21,539
production office just to make
sure he gets on this plane.

1038
00:58:22,120 --> 00:58:25,380
Yeah, I remember dropping
him at the airport.

1039
00:58:26,860 --> 00:58:28,860
Like, I thought I'd been
told to make sure

1040
00:58:28,860 --> 00:58:31,320
he gets on the plane, so
he was there on time.

1041
00:58:33,539 --> 00:58:34,880
But the next morning
I got a phone call

1042
00:58:34,880 --> 00:58:37,320
saying, Where the hell's
Richard Stanley?

1043
00:58:40,099 --> 00:58:42,319
I think he had to take it
home from them and he

1044
00:58:42,319 --> 00:58:45,279
didn't use it and they knew that
Nobody was on the plane.

1045
00:58:45,360 --> 00:58:47,139
He was supposed to be on
a plane out of there

1046
00:58:47,139 --> 00:58:50,179
and he wasn't Suddenly he
was this missing person.

1047
00:58:50,260 --> 00:58:51,480
They were and so they're
just assuming.

1048
00:58:51,659 --> 00:58:55,039
Okay, we've we've totally fucked this
person over So that doesn't

1049
00:58:55,039 --> 00:58:58,059
know that there would be in some revenge
motive to do something But

1050
00:58:58,059 --> 00:58:59,739
I think he made a few threats on his

1051
00:58:59,739 --> 00:59:04,639
way out I'm told that he and

1052
00:59:04,639 --> 00:59:09,940
some of aboriginal friends had placed
rocks around the Location to

1053
00:59:09,940 --> 00:59:13,339
wish us bad luck a casual remark by
Grace Walker during one of the

1054
00:59:13,339 --> 00:59:16,039
records Ah, well if new line try and
throw us out if you ever close

1055
00:59:16,039 --> 00:59:19,799
blow the whole place up had found its
way back to be to new line who

1056
00:59:19,799 --> 00:59:22,759
actively frightened that we might
try and blow up the set or

1057
00:59:23,559 --> 00:59:25,860
Sabotage the production
in some way and we

1058
00:59:25,860 --> 00:59:30,159
heard that Richard Stanley
had Not worked out.

1059
00:59:30,299 --> 00:59:33,739
So for most of us and the hearsay that it
was like, what does that mean for us?

1060
00:59:33,840 --> 00:59:35,239
What are they gonna get
a new director?

1061
00:59:35,339 --> 00:59:36,339
What does that mean?

1062
00:59:36,500 --> 00:59:38,539
Production shut down for
a couple of weeks.

1063
00:59:38,639 --> 00:59:42,659
They didn't send us home we just sat
around and repaired things or

1064
00:59:42,659 --> 00:59:47,059
painted more pieces or whatever and
Waited for production to resume.

1065
00:59:47,319 --> 00:59:49,460
We had millions of dollars invested
and it wasn't like we

1066
00:59:49,460 --> 00:59:54,219
were a very big company So we
had to continue with it and

1067
00:59:54,219 --> 00:59:56,920
that's generally my spirit Anyhow,
no matter how hard

1068
00:59:56,920 --> 00:59:59,559
things are finish it up and then
we'll see what happens

1069
00:59:59,559 --> 01:00:03,000
They had to have the same cast
because of the makeup

1070
01:00:03,000 --> 01:00:04,559
effects that they really life cast

1071
01:00:04,559 --> 01:00:06,779
everyone They couldn't actually
recast the leads.

1072
01:00:07,259 --> 01:00:10,940
So they had to try to hold the original
actors to contract my

1073
01:00:11,880 --> 01:00:15,799
Representation said you'll never work
again Not only will they sue

1074
01:00:15,799 --> 01:00:19,880
you and garnish your wages for the
next 20 years but they will

1075
01:00:19,880 --> 01:00:22,599
ensure that you don't
work ever again in

1076
01:00:22,599 --> 01:00:25,659
this industry and They'll
tarnish your name.

1077
01:00:25,739 --> 01:00:27,699
They'll destroy your reputation,
you know, because

1078
01:00:27,699 --> 01:00:30,719
you're not allowed to just
walk on a multi-million

1079
01:00:30,719 --> 01:00:33,980
dollar picture You know, it wasn't
just what happened to Richard.

1080
01:00:34,179 --> 01:00:36,519
That was the beginning
of the nightmare

1081
01:00:41,199 --> 01:00:46,299
We had met John Frankenheimer on just
a general meeting kind of thing.

1082
01:00:46,439 --> 01:00:49,460
He was an incredibly talented
guy, but he

1083
01:00:49,460 --> 01:00:52,179
also had a few films that
were not successful.

1084
01:00:52,460 --> 01:00:55,679
He was sort of in the discard pile
and was looking for work again.

1085
01:00:55,879 --> 01:00:56,939
All the other actors turned it down.

1086
01:00:57,139 --> 01:00:58,960
They went to Philip Kaufman,
he turned it down.

1087
01:00:59,460 --> 01:01:00,559
They asked some other people, they're

1088
01:01:00,559 --> 01:01:02,519
like, how much time do we
have to prepare this?

1089
01:01:02,579 --> 01:01:04,379
One week? And we're working
with Kilmer

1090
01:01:04,379 --> 01:01:07,119
and Brando, we have one
week for this script?

1091
01:01:07,779 --> 01:01:09,639
And we have no vision, it's like, no.

1092
01:01:09,639 --> 01:01:13,539
I worked with John for basically
the last decade of

1093
01:01:13,539 --> 01:01:18,980
his life and he was, I don't
know, he was an old

1094
01:01:18,980 --> 01:01:23,799
school guy who was a good filmmaker,
very good director.

1095
01:01:24,460 --> 01:01:26,059
While we were together, everything he

1096
01:01:26,059 --> 01:01:28,839
did he got an award for,
except for Moreau.

1097
01:01:29,799 --> 01:01:34,419
He had a reputation for being an
enormously talented wrangler of

1098
01:01:34,419 --> 01:01:38,500
difficult actors and had worked with some
of the most difficult actors around.

1099
01:01:38,500 --> 01:01:41,599
His background was he knew how to make
a movie, that's all I cared about.

1100
01:01:41,779 --> 01:01:46,539
A movie about monsters wasn't
exactly John's.

1101
01:01:47,159 --> 01:01:50,019
John would not have probably picked that
one out if they said, here, take it.

1102
01:01:50,919 --> 01:01:52,859
Here's ten movies, which one
do you want to direct?

1103
01:01:53,019 --> 01:01:54,419
This wouldn't have been on the list.

1104
01:01:54,779 --> 01:01:58,399
Later on, actually, I asked him
why he actually did the

1105
01:01:58,399 --> 01:02:01,299
movie, because we all knew that
he didn't like the script.

1106
01:02:01,599 --> 01:02:03,859
And so he told me that
when they offered him

1107
01:02:03,859 --> 01:02:06,679
the movie, he said to his
wife, what can we do?

1108
01:02:07,139 --> 01:02:12,279
And his wife said, well, you just
ask him for something that

1109
01:02:12,279 --> 01:02:17,199
either they would not agree to
or we're really happy people.

1110
01:02:17,899 --> 01:02:20,079
So he asked, as far as
I know, he asked

1111
01:02:20,079 --> 01:02:21,899
for a three-picture deal
and a lot of money.

1112
01:02:22,399 --> 01:02:23,799
We're going to fly to Australia
and do this movie.

1113
01:02:23,899 --> 01:02:25,619
I'm like, get out a map, let
me see, where is this?

1114
01:02:25,639 --> 01:02:27,980
And I got a rainfall map.

1115
01:02:28,839 --> 01:02:31,839
I'm thinking, rain, I'm
an AD, I got to shoot.

1116
01:02:31,839 --> 01:02:36,659
And I'm looking, it's color-coded, and
it gets bluer as it gets to be rain.

1117
01:02:36,699 --> 01:02:38,879
And then there's this one dot, the

1118
01:02:41,079 --> 01:02:45,939
size of an eraser head, purple, as
dark as it could possibly be.

1119
01:02:46,000 --> 01:02:48,179
And I looked closely at the map,
and that's where we were going.

1120
01:02:48,659 --> 01:02:50,119
I mean, and it was a lot of water.

1121
01:02:50,939 --> 01:02:52,739
So I thought, well, that's
interesting.

1122
01:02:53,379 --> 01:02:57,059
We're going out to see the set, and
we leave the hotel the first day.

1123
01:02:57,119 --> 01:02:58,119
We're driving out.

1124
01:02:59,719 --> 01:03:01,839
And I'm looking at my watch
and thinking, well,

1125
01:03:01,939 --> 01:03:06,339
this is a half hour, 45 minutes,
on these little roads.

1126
01:03:06,519 --> 01:03:09,859
And I mean, five minutes away from
the hotel, we're in the jungle.

1127
01:03:10,039 --> 01:03:11,039
You're looking at jungle.

1128
01:03:13,719 --> 01:03:16,159
But 55 miles away, you're
also looking at jungle.

1129
01:03:16,259 --> 01:03:18,099
Well, when you're in the jungle,
what do you see?

1130
01:03:18,119 --> 01:03:19,119
Jungle.

1131
01:03:19,119 --> 01:03:21,079
I mean, it's like, why?

1132
01:03:22,299 --> 01:03:24,199
Oh, OK, well, we had to plant some of

1133
01:03:24,199 --> 01:03:26,399
this, too, because it's
a banana plantation.

1134
01:03:26,399 --> 01:03:30,079
So they had actually gone
to the jungle and then

1135
01:03:30,079 --> 01:03:33,139
planted some jungle, and then
built this thing an

1136
01:03:33,139 --> 01:03:35,799
hour away from the hotel, every
day an hour, driving.

1137
01:03:35,960 --> 01:03:38,339
So it's two hours out of
my day to get there.

1138
01:03:38,859 --> 01:03:40,159
And they said, why did you do that?

1139
01:03:40,259 --> 01:03:43,779
Well, when it's clear, and you look up
there, you can see this mountain.

1140
01:03:43,879 --> 01:03:45,899
It's the highest mountain
in Australia.

1141
01:03:46,539 --> 01:03:47,539
Really?

1142
01:03:47,539 --> 01:03:48,539
Oh, OK.

1143
01:03:48,699 --> 01:03:50,839
That mountain was visible for about an

1144
01:03:50,839 --> 01:03:52,839
hour and a half, the whole
time we were there.

1145
01:03:52,839 --> 01:03:56,079
And when it did come out, we had
to dig a hole about this deep

1146
01:03:56,079 --> 01:03:58,960
to put the camera in, because it
was so close to the mountain.

1147
01:03:59,139 --> 01:04:02,079
It was like all of it wrong,
all of it wrong, useless.

1148
01:04:02,399 --> 01:04:05,960
I was always getting flak about
how far I'd built the set from

1149
01:04:05,960 --> 01:04:08,859
town and how far everyone had to
travel each day and blah, blah.

1150
01:04:09,039 --> 01:04:12,659
But I'd search for months to find this

1151
01:04:12,659 --> 01:04:15,439
particular location that
we carved out of.

1152
01:04:15,500 --> 01:04:17,199
We just carved it out
of the rainforest.

1153
01:04:20,050 --> 01:04:25,350
We had one week to prep, one
week we had to get to

1154
01:04:25,350 --> 01:04:27,890
meet everybody, basically, and
to see what was going on.

1155
01:04:28,010 --> 01:04:29,370
They said I had to come to dinner and

1156
01:04:29,370 --> 01:04:31,350
that our director, our new
director, was here.

1157
01:04:31,750 --> 01:04:36,090
And this older gentleman
in, you know, director

1158
01:04:36,090 --> 01:04:39,590
gear with this jungle hat on
came into the restaurant.

1159
01:04:39,890 --> 01:04:41,690
And at one point during
the dinner I actually

1160
01:04:41,690 --> 01:04:43,850
asked him, so what's your
take on this story?

1161
01:04:43,850 --> 01:04:48,630
There's a certain vision, and he's
like, ah, Marco, vision.

1162
01:04:49,590 --> 01:04:52,230
That's an overused word,
I'm telling you.

1163
01:04:52,250 --> 01:04:55,050
It's not about a vision, it's I'm trying
to tell a story here, okay?

1164
01:04:55,710 --> 01:04:57,430
Yeah, what is this?

1165
01:04:58,289 --> 01:04:59,470
Are you gonna tell this story?

1166
01:04:59,530 --> 01:05:02,810
Ah, we're gonna see. I bring on,
I brought in my own writer,

1167
01:05:03,350 --> 01:05:05,930
so I'm like, okay, it's gonna be a
different movie, I guess, now.

1168
01:05:06,190 --> 01:05:08,850
He brought in a new DP,
William Fraker.

1169
01:05:09,010 --> 01:05:11,610
He brought me and a couple
of other people.

1170
01:05:13,070 --> 01:05:14,810
And was going along with the cast.

1171
01:05:14,930 --> 01:05:17,310
They had to, they recast
it at the last minute.

1172
01:05:17,590 --> 01:05:18,690
David Theulis came in.

1173
01:05:19,150 --> 01:05:21,450
I didn't want to be involved in something
that just seemed so cynical.

1174
01:05:21,930 --> 01:05:23,010
He tried to get me to stay.

1175
01:05:23,170 --> 01:05:25,070
He couldn't believe that
this young kid was

1176
01:05:25,070 --> 01:05:27,710
sitting there saying no
to John Frankenheimer.

1177
01:05:27,850 --> 01:05:32,050
Initially he said, you know, listen,
I'm just been brought in, I don't

1178
01:05:32,050 --> 01:05:36,870
know what's going on, I'm just a director,
I'm here to try to do a job.

1179
01:05:36,870 --> 01:05:40,070
I need all the help I can
get from you, you know,

1180
01:05:40,150 --> 01:05:44,150
just be on my side and we'll get
through this type thing.

1181
01:05:47,150 --> 01:05:52,269
Within three or four days,
that had changed to

1182
01:05:52,269 --> 01:05:56,390
name-calling, it had changed
to being screamed at.

1183
01:05:56,810 --> 01:05:58,910
This man hated my guts.

1184
01:05:59,090 --> 01:06:02,170
But Frankenheimer was a freak,
he was a real freak.

1185
01:06:02,170 --> 01:06:06,289
I was a producer and I had to drop some
new script around his place one night.

1186
01:06:06,990 --> 01:06:09,150
You know, they'd give me the script,
I knew where he lived.

1187
01:06:09,950 --> 01:06:11,870
Driven straight to his place,
knocked on the door.

1188
01:06:12,750 --> 01:06:16,410
Frankenheimer came to the door and
he's like, Oliver, you're late!

1189
01:06:17,510 --> 01:06:22,289
So I was like, alright, alright
dude, here's your script, man.

1190
01:06:22,769 --> 01:06:26,490
The first week we went pretty slow, plus
we were still sorting things out.

1191
01:06:26,490 --> 01:06:30,610
Script pages were coming in on the
facts, you know, from the US.

1192
01:06:30,830 --> 01:06:33,070
And then we finally brought out a
writer and then another writer.

1193
01:06:33,130 --> 01:06:34,269
There was a writer there all the time.

1194
01:06:34,410 --> 01:06:37,870
Oh, what about we, oh, that's a great
idea, yeah, let's do that.

1195
01:06:37,970 --> 01:06:39,350
So I thought, oh, good,
here we go again.

1196
01:06:39,610 --> 01:06:42,910
It was really John had to decide,
had to figure out how

1197
01:06:42,910 --> 01:06:45,090
the story could be shaped into
a story he wanted to tell.

1198
01:06:46,230 --> 01:06:49,769
And it was not what the previous
director had planned.

1199
01:06:50,070 --> 01:06:52,670
It was always drifting away from what

1200
01:06:53,389 --> 01:06:56,310
Richard's ideas for the story were.

1201
01:06:56,310 --> 01:06:58,010
He came to the set and
he said to everyone,

1202
01:06:58,789 --> 01:07:01,470
look, I did this a couple
of times in my life.

1203
01:07:02,090 --> 01:07:05,070
I came in, you know, somebody else got
fired and I rescued their movie.

1204
01:07:05,269 --> 01:07:08,370
And actually, it turned both
times, it turned out well.

1205
01:07:08,710 --> 01:07:09,930
So let's see how this one goes.

1206
01:07:10,269 --> 01:07:12,330
No bullshit, let's not muck around,
let's get it happening.

1207
01:07:13,570 --> 01:07:14,630
Little did he know.

1208
01:07:15,250 --> 01:07:19,130
I mean, nothing really
changed in terms

1209
01:07:19,130 --> 01:07:21,450
of efficiency when he got there.

1210
01:07:21,930 --> 01:07:24,310
I was only meant to be there
for three, four weeks.

1211
01:07:24,310 --> 01:07:26,090
I was there for like six months.

1212
01:07:26,970 --> 01:07:27,970
It was great.

1213
01:07:29,000 --> 01:07:33,000
♪

1214
01:07:35,750 --> 01:07:39,309
I knew that this was going
to be totally insane and

1215
01:07:39,309 --> 01:07:42,210
that we were going to be
hugely lucky if we just

1216
01:07:42,210 --> 01:07:44,550
finished a film with a beginning,
a middle and an end.

1217
01:07:45,030 --> 01:07:47,650
Everyone knew it was a tough shoot
and it was a tough shoot.

1218
01:07:47,849 --> 01:07:52,429
There was a lot of friction between the
actors, some of the actors and John,

1219
01:07:55,670 --> 01:07:58,829
mainly because of John's
behavior towards them.

1220
01:07:59,550 --> 01:08:03,809
John can be very strong
and if he has a

1221
01:08:03,809 --> 01:08:08,150
disliking towards someone, he
would just let him have it.

1222
01:08:08,349 --> 01:08:11,289
He was kind of a little bit
of a tyrant that way.

1223
01:08:11,570 --> 01:08:13,130
He was that way in all
the movies he did.

1224
01:08:13,190 --> 01:08:14,190
It wasn't just this one.

1225
01:08:14,210 --> 01:08:17,529
He's really, really one of the
last old school screamers.

1226
01:08:18,229 --> 01:08:20,409
He would bark out his orders
and he was just

1227
01:08:20,409 --> 01:08:22,770
this rough cut guy and you
could imitate him.

1228
01:08:22,850 --> 01:08:24,289
Things are going to change,
aren't they?

1229
01:08:24,449 --> 01:08:25,989
I need my commander on camera one and

1230
01:08:26,470 --> 01:08:28,130
camera two, you better
be ready to catch it.

1231
01:08:28,890 --> 01:08:32,310
And you're going to throw the torch and
the whole thing goes up into flames.

1232
01:08:32,590 --> 01:08:37,510
He wanted people to do their job and
that extended from the guys doing

1233
01:08:37,510 --> 01:08:41,350
the lighting to the guys doing the special
effects makeup to the actors.

1234
01:08:41,609 --> 01:08:44,869
And he was heavy handed with
the Australian crew, which

1235
01:08:44,869 --> 01:08:49,789
he would loudly denounce at lunch
and say that it's the

1236
01:08:49,789 --> 01:08:53,329
worst crew he'd ever seen and
he wanted his American crew.

1237
01:08:53,329 --> 01:08:56,050
And the crew, which they
do on a lot of

1238
01:08:56,050 --> 01:08:58,289
shoots and still do, is
make up crew t-shirts.

1239
01:08:58,670 --> 01:09:00,850
The t-shirt had on it
as a quote, which

1240
01:09:00,850 --> 01:09:03,210
was one of the lines of
dialogue for the film.

1241
01:09:03,770 --> 01:09:05,329
You don't have to obey these bastards.

1242
01:09:05,409 --> 01:09:06,409
They're not gods.

1243
01:09:09,100 --> 01:09:13,900
He had no idea what a didgeridoo
was, or what the instrument

1244
01:09:15,640 --> 01:09:18,760
at one stage he called me, he
says, David, I want you to

1245
01:09:18,760 --> 01:09:23,039
get that dickeridoo, and I want you
to smash him over the head.

1246
01:09:23,100 --> 01:09:27,380
I said, John, I'm not going to
do that with a didgeridoo.

1247
01:09:27,760 --> 01:09:32,240
This didgeridoo is a sacred instrument
to me, and to Aboriginal peoples.

1248
01:09:32,500 --> 01:09:35,600
He didn't seem like he particularly
wanted to be there either.

1249
01:09:35,600 --> 01:09:36,840
I know he didn't.

1250
01:09:37,220 --> 01:09:39,960
But he was there because he wanted
to work with Marlon Brando.

1251
01:09:40,200 --> 01:09:41,680
Like everybody did.

1252
01:09:43,780 --> 01:09:46,500
Basically, he was hired
to work for two weeks.

1253
01:09:46,740 --> 01:09:50,820
And so I said, no, but you have to
absolutely be here on this date.

1254
01:09:51,539 --> 01:09:55,660
Of course, not only did he not show
up, he was nowhere to be found,

1255
01:09:55,760 --> 01:10:01,200
and none of his lawyer agents or anybody
knew where he was, purportedly.

1256
01:10:01,880 --> 01:10:07,480
And then about a week after he was
due to report, he did show up.

1257
01:10:08,800 --> 01:10:12,200
And John was uncharacteristically
very nervous.

1258
01:10:12,820 --> 01:10:14,900
And everybody's, oh, Marlon's
coming to the set.

1259
01:10:14,960 --> 01:10:15,960
He's coming to the set.

1260
01:10:16,200 --> 01:10:17,600
An hour goes by.

1261
01:10:18,100 --> 01:10:19,940
He's coming, get ready,
have everything ready.

1262
01:10:20,199 --> 01:10:22,220
And Frankenheimer was like,
have the cameras ready.

1263
01:10:22,539 --> 01:10:25,340
And then I don't hear from him until
about 3 in the afternoon.

1264
01:10:26,060 --> 01:10:28,940
He just said, well, I'm ready
to shoot, so I'm fine.

1265
01:10:29,300 --> 01:10:30,300
And I look.

1266
01:10:30,760 --> 01:10:34,520
And out of the jungle,
this, this, this,

1267
01:10:35,039 --> 01:10:37,220
I couldn't really tell
what was going on.

1268
01:10:37,460 --> 01:10:40,940
But this person emerges out
of, because we were in the

1269
01:10:40,940 --> 01:10:44,539
middle of this banana plantation,
a really thick jungle.

1270
01:10:45,120 --> 01:10:49,900
And the scene was in a palanquin that he
was supposed to be being brought in.

1271
01:10:50,460 --> 01:10:52,480
I thought maybe it was one
of the creatures or

1272
01:10:52,480 --> 01:10:55,100
something that I hadn't seen that
was like a different design.

1273
01:10:55,620 --> 01:10:59,200
And it was Marlon.

1274
01:10:59,480 --> 01:11:00,480
Release him.

1275
01:11:02,940 --> 01:11:04,039
Release him.

1276
01:11:04,600 --> 01:11:07,360
And he was in a.

1277
01:11:11,300 --> 01:11:15,260
Looked like cheesecloth
like a very very thin

1278
01:11:15,260 --> 01:11:19,480
linen that he'd wrapped around
himself Like a diaper.

1279
01:11:19,659 --> 01:11:22,300
He'd covered himself in white paint.

1280
01:11:22,320 --> 01:11:23,760
Don't you feel the heat?

1281
01:11:25,239 --> 01:11:27,920
As I do I Tolerate it.

1282
01:11:27,980 --> 01:11:32,320
It was explained that the white
face was kind of a makeup

1283
01:11:32,320 --> 01:11:36,520
that he wore only has in
the Sun so I talked to

1284
01:11:37,039 --> 01:11:40,539
Frankenheimer and asked if the
dialect to use was also

1285
01:11:40,539 --> 01:11:43,000
something that he would
change Interior

1286
01:11:43,000 --> 01:11:46,119
and exterior and Brando
was a ham operator.

1287
01:11:46,239 --> 01:11:50,640
He was listening to our phone
call and he said If you

1288
01:11:50,640 --> 01:11:53,159
want to direct the film when I showed
up on the set, isn't it?

1289
01:11:53,220 --> 01:11:55,460
You know you direct the film
he he banned me from

1290
01:11:55,460 --> 01:12:00,680
the set for questioning this
the whole white faced

1291
01:12:01,120 --> 01:12:05,820
thing was Was that gene it was
that mad or was that genius?

1292
01:12:07,440 --> 01:12:12,060
Because the whole white face wearing
sunglasses Meant that

1293
01:12:12,060 --> 01:12:15,980
Marlon Brando's stand-in could
do quite a lot of the picture

1294
01:12:15,980 --> 01:12:20,180
for him Brando's in the Palico and
then He says, you know John.

1295
01:12:20,279 --> 01:12:25,119
I Think we need some peacock feathers
behind my head It wouldn't look

1296
01:12:25,119 --> 01:12:28,940
better if we had some peacock feathers
and out of the corner of my eye.

1297
01:12:29,020 --> 01:12:32,940
I see the Art director was this
wonderful guy could do

1298
01:12:32,940 --> 01:12:37,340
anything Running like hell to his
car And so everybody then

1299
01:12:37,340 --> 01:12:40,520
sat around again while we're waiting
for peacock feathers in

1300
01:12:40,520 --> 01:12:43,680
the middle of nowhere and then
about 20 minutes later the

1301
01:12:44,480 --> 01:12:48,880
Gracie, I think it was his name
came roaring back in and

1302
01:12:49,280 --> 01:12:52,400
Holding up the peacock feathers
and I said where the hell did

1303
01:12:52,400 --> 01:12:54,900
you get those from and he had found a

1304
01:12:54,900 --> 01:12:58,159
peacock That was on the road
by a farm somewhere.

1305
01:12:58,340 --> 01:13:02,420
Remember it's saying and he Leaped
on the peacock and pulled

1306
01:13:02,420 --> 01:13:07,860
the feathers out He was just
delighted by everyone and

1307
01:13:07,860 --> 01:13:10,960
expressed all kinds of glee at
seeing all these wonderful

1308
01:13:11,539 --> 01:13:14,779
Faces and the heads and the monsters
and he wanted to meet everybody.

1309
01:13:14,940 --> 01:13:20,060
So I mean everybody I was dressed
as a feral pig someone else was

1310
01:13:20,060 --> 01:13:22,560
dressed as a goat someone else was dressed
as a bison someone else was

1311
01:13:22,560 --> 01:13:27,360
dressed as a Monkey, so although we
may feel we met Marlon Brando and

1312
01:13:27,940 --> 01:13:31,579
he I'm sure just met a Number of grotesque
animals that he wouldn't

1313
01:13:31,579 --> 01:13:35,260
recognize again and shook trotters
and paws and claws with us the

1314
01:13:35,260 --> 01:13:39,000
typical day with Marlon Marlon would
arrive he would arrive at nine o

1315
01:13:39,000 --> 01:13:42,860
'clock And he would go into the trailer
and then John would go in there

1316
01:13:42,860 --> 01:13:46,119
and start talking to them and the executives
would stand around in a

1317
01:13:46,119 --> 01:13:51,260
circle and scour and
scowl and Look down

1318
01:13:51,260 --> 01:13:52,680
not know what to do hours

1319
01:13:52,680 --> 01:13:56,739
went by maybe an hour half an hour before
lunch He would come out and

1320
01:13:56,739 --> 01:13:59,260
they would tour the set and talk about
the scene We're about to shoot

1321
01:13:59,720 --> 01:14:03,699
and Marlon would invent a bunch of
things I remember Frankenheimer

1322
01:14:03,699 --> 01:14:08,800
trying to talk to him about the scene
and Marlon saying no, no, no,

1323
01:14:08,880 --> 01:14:14,420
no, no Instead of it being about
violence and all this pain and

1324
01:14:14,420 --> 01:14:19,239
suffering I think that all of that
animal people should get together

1325
01:14:19,239 --> 01:14:23,260
and there should be a grand Celebration
like a bar mitzvah, and I

1326
01:14:23,260 --> 01:14:28,400
thought he's He he was always playing
with the idea of being

1327
01:14:28,400 --> 01:14:33,039
hot and overheated he wanted an ice
bucket on top of his head Oh

1328
01:14:39,539 --> 01:14:43,680
So Johnny the prop guy found out as
a saucepan or something that we

1329
01:14:43,680 --> 01:14:47,020
cut the bottom out of it It fitted
on his head perfectly and then

1330
01:14:47,020 --> 01:14:51,440
and for is a ball character Tips the
ice in no one ever knew that he

1331
01:14:51,440 --> 01:14:54,320
wanted ice or an ice pack on his head
So we had to make it quickly

1332
01:14:54,320 --> 01:14:59,659
you you had to just keep taking away
Problems that he had created in

1333
01:14:59,659 --> 01:15:03,739
order to put the work off and then
finally you got the work just one

1334
01:15:03,739 --> 01:15:06,920
day I said, can we talk and he said
what and what is it dear and I

1335
01:15:06,920 --> 01:15:12,659
said, I don't know just In terms
of our characters and how they

1336
01:15:12,659 --> 01:15:16,279
relate I'd love to have
some time to do

1337
01:15:16,279 --> 01:15:20,820
that and he said No This is

1338
01:15:20,820 --> 01:15:25,699
all Insane, I'm getting paid You're

1339
01:15:25,699 --> 01:15:29,460
getting paid None of the
scripts make any sense.

1340
01:15:29,560 --> 01:15:30,560
So why worry?

1341
01:15:31,060 --> 01:15:33,480
You know just relax do
what you're doing.

1342
01:15:33,539 --> 01:15:36,239
You're beautiful. Don't
worry about it And

1343
01:15:36,239 --> 01:15:38,100
I said, but I mean how the
characters relate.

1344
01:15:38,220 --> 01:15:39,220
Oh, isn't there?

1345
01:15:41,220 --> 01:15:45,440
He never would learn his lines and

1346
01:15:45,440 --> 01:15:47,900
he had Carolyn as assistant.

1347
01:15:48,140 --> 01:15:52,900
Mm-hmm read lines from the trailer
into his little earpiece

1348
01:15:52,900 --> 01:15:56,800
and One I remember one time

1349
01:15:57,240 --> 01:15:58,980
Take was going rather smoothly

1350
01:15:58,980 --> 01:16:01,400
and then he stopped in the
middle of it and he said

1351
01:16:01,760 --> 01:16:05,199
goddammit Carolyn I told you
not to act Frankenheimer

1352
01:16:05,199 --> 01:16:08,280
actually called me at one point
Again, it was one of those I

1353
01:16:08,280 --> 01:16:12,480
you don't know me, but I have to talk to
the head of the company So what is it?

1354
01:16:13,140 --> 01:16:18,460
He said this is complete insanity
here And I have to tell you I

1355
01:16:18,460 --> 01:16:21,840
dealt with some very very difficult
actors in my life But I have

1356
01:16:21,840 --> 01:16:26,600
never ever dealt with somebody like
Marlon Brando he said we're

1357
01:16:26,600 --> 01:16:29,340
driving and he stops the car and says

1358
01:16:29,340 --> 01:16:33,220
let's fuck Bob Shea and I

1359
01:16:33,220 --> 01:16:35,960
said this is John's saying to me and I

1360
01:16:35,960 --> 01:16:37,780
said well why he seems like
a pretty nice guy.

1361
01:16:37,880 --> 01:16:38,880
Why should we do that?

1362
01:16:38,940 --> 01:16:42,480
so well, he doesn't know what he's doing
and I think what we should do

1363
01:16:42,480 --> 01:16:47,000
is just close the down in the production
and You and I are gonna

1364
01:16:47,000 --> 01:16:50,800
rewrite the script and we'll spend
six or eight weeks Rewriting it

1365
01:16:50,800 --> 01:16:53,960
because I have some ideas
about how Dr.

1366
01:16:54,060 --> 01:16:56,400
Moreau should be wearing
a hat all the time.

1367
01:16:56,619 --> 01:16:59,319
And at the end of the movie takes
off his hat and he's actually

1368
01:16:59,319 --> 01:17:04,079
a dolphin So then I knew we

1369
01:17:04,079 --> 01:17:06,520
were in serious serious bad shape

1370
01:17:07,040 --> 01:17:11,039
John Referred to Brando as a genius

1371
01:17:12,140 --> 01:17:14,100
After the movie he didn't Brenda.

1372
01:17:14,340 --> 01:17:19,140
Look at me sick. Okay, so So you
know the German actor, right?

1373
01:17:20,780 --> 01:17:25,680
Uh, yes, I'm the German actor
I don't talk so just well,

1374
01:17:25,860 --> 01:17:26,940
♪

1375
01:17:27,840 --> 01:17:28,840
buzzer cuts

1376
01:17:32,699 --> 01:17:33,699
No idea.

1377
01:17:34,260 --> 01:17:35,380
Not German, right?

1378
01:17:35,939 --> 01:17:40,220
So I said, Mr. Rendell, I'm sorry,
I didn't understand that.

1379
01:17:40,960 --> 01:17:41,960
So you're German, right?

1380
01:17:42,559 --> 01:17:43,559
Yes, I'm German.

1381
01:17:49,699 --> 01:17:50,699
Ah.

1382
01:17:52,019 --> 01:17:53,239
Katze is cat.

1383
01:17:53,639 --> 01:17:54,639
Dach is roof.

1384
01:17:54,659 --> 01:17:58,220
So I'm like, ah, you're talking about
the cat on the hot tin roof, right?

1385
01:17:58,840 --> 01:17:59,840
No.

1386
01:18:07,289 --> 01:18:10,230
Okay, I got no idea what he
was talking about then and

1387
01:18:10,230 --> 01:18:12,770
then and then Zinnemann said
I think what he's talking

1388
01:18:12,770 --> 01:18:16,170
about is You know, it's better to
kill two birds with a stone.

1389
01:18:16,289 --> 01:18:18,430
Whatever. He did he made something
up, you know, and Brenda's

1390
01:18:18,430 --> 01:18:23,090
exactly He talks better German than you
Mr. Brando, we need you on the set.

1391
01:18:23,150 --> 01:18:26,710
I gotta go now last time I talked to him
never talked to him again, right?

1392
01:18:26,789 --> 01:18:30,050
And then the next thing I heard actually
is that that he actually did

1393
01:18:30,050 --> 01:18:34,650
something very similar to Nelson de
la Rosa You're the Spanish actor.

1394
01:18:34,970 --> 01:18:38,789
Si, senor Mmm, so you I
do speak some Spanish

1395
01:18:42,810 --> 01:18:46,630
Si, senor, I love this guy
I want this guy in every

1396
01:18:46,630 --> 01:18:51,690
scene every scene with me every
scene Zinnemann Sorry, mr.

1397
01:18:51,750 --> 01:18:54,750
Brennan that no we can't do that
because he's not an actor.

1398
01:18:54,970 --> 01:18:59,510
I teach him how to act Okay,
but you know, he doesn't

1399
01:18:59,510 --> 01:19:04,110
speak English I just dub him
Yeah, but we you know, I

1400
01:19:04,110 --> 01:19:08,690
mean Marco Hofschneider is is
in every scene with you.

1401
01:19:08,990 --> 01:19:13,250
Well, I guess we just have to change
the script And that was it.

1402
01:19:13,590 --> 01:19:17,070
He took my part away I mean Brenda
gave him the part but man,

1403
01:19:17,090 --> 01:19:20,050
you know, I was I thought I'd a
problem with Kilmer No, I had

1404
01:19:20,050 --> 01:19:23,590
a problem with the smallest man in
the world and I lost to him.

1405
01:19:24,010 --> 01:19:29,130
That's something So Nelson was
about 17 inches or something.

1406
01:19:29,910 --> 01:19:34,110
I think he stood this
high anyway And he

1407
01:19:34,110 --> 01:19:37,350
would he talked like this as well

1408
01:19:39,370 --> 01:19:44,910
and And he would draw you pictures
and the pictures were

1409
01:19:44,910 --> 01:19:49,289
kind of really childlike he would
say these things to us

1410
01:19:49,289 --> 01:19:53,130
and his sister would interpret
and Sometimes his sister

1411
01:19:53,130 --> 01:19:56,690
would just shake her head and
say I'm not I and I said you

1412
01:19:56,690 --> 01:19:59,630
cannot you're not here to censor
what he says because he

1413
01:19:59,630 --> 01:20:05,550
was 27 years old or something and I said
you you just you need to interpret.

1414
01:20:05,970 --> 01:20:08,910
So he's part of what whatever's
happening and she

1415
01:20:08,910 --> 01:20:12,030
said, oh Nelson wants to know
what you're doing later.

1416
01:20:12,510 --> 01:20:14,490
Can you do you want to come
around to his room?

1417
01:20:14,510 --> 01:20:19,350
It was like Okay, we might just
you can censor that's fine.

1418
01:20:19,470 --> 01:20:20,850
Very popular with the ladies.

1419
01:20:20,990 --> 01:20:23,990
They loved having him up on their
laps It was great fun going out

1420
01:20:23,990 --> 01:20:26,789
with him to cans in the nightclubs
you know, you'd be queuing up

1421
01:20:26,789 --> 01:20:29,250
and they'd be looking for ID for people
and then they'd see him and

1422
01:20:29,670 --> 01:20:33,950
When he'd go and you know with you'd
have to kind of Dance in a

1423
01:20:33,950 --> 01:20:37,130
circle around him so that he didn't
get trodden on we would go out

1424
01:20:37,130 --> 01:20:43,030
and we'd go dancing and stuff he'd
get down and but yeah, he was a

1425
01:20:44,289 --> 01:20:50,190
Very sexual but even Nelson started acting
up once Marlon decided he loved him.

1426
01:20:50,329 --> 01:20:53,350
We were standing in the
In the elevator at one

1427
01:20:53,350 --> 01:20:56,610
point and I said Hannah's
now, how was your day?

1428
01:20:57,050 --> 01:21:00,570
Shut up And he he actually hit me

1429
01:21:00,570 --> 01:21:04,730
in the nuts And I can't do

1430
01:21:04,730 --> 01:21:07,410
anything I mean like no it's it's
like if somebody would see you

1431
01:21:07,410 --> 01:21:09,610
like kicking of the smallest man
in the World around you're in

1432
01:21:09,610 --> 01:21:13,110
trouble He started getting lines
written for him and he started

1433
01:21:13,110 --> 01:21:18,090
getting the same costume as Marlon
was Wearing that was all

1434
01:21:18,090 --> 01:21:21,210
Marlon and it did I wanted him as my

1435
01:21:21,210 --> 01:21:24,670
sidekick the guy who I had
making all the props.

1436
01:21:24,770 --> 01:21:30,210
He was a genius He built this beautiful
little grand piano that we sat

1437
01:21:30,210 --> 01:21:32,390
up on top of the the grand piano

1438
01:21:32,390 --> 01:21:36,230
that Brando was playing
and They played

1439
01:21:39,800 --> 01:21:42,279
I think it's one of the
greatest scenes ever.

1440
01:21:42,800 --> 01:21:46,060
And I think that's how the whole mini-me
thing developed, which, you

1441
01:21:46,060 --> 01:21:50,440
know, has gone on to South Path of
Marlin, adopting this little guy.

1442
01:21:50,820 --> 01:21:53,579
I said, you know, you really
get along with him, and he

1443
01:21:53,579 --> 01:21:56,940
said, well, I'm telling you,
this movie, nobody's gonna

1444
01:21:56,940 --> 01:22:00,860
care about anything except this young

1445
01:22:00,860 --> 01:22:03,199
man, because he's fascinating.

1446
01:22:03,400 --> 01:22:05,199
He is just human artwork.

1447
01:22:05,560 --> 01:22:09,340
You know, I will say that in
Richard's defence any day.

1448
01:22:09,340 --> 01:22:13,820
It's like Marlon Brando
and Val Kilmer were

1449
01:22:13,820 --> 01:22:16,920
there to mess with the film
as much as possible.

1450
01:22:17,860 --> 01:22:20,840
Marlon was there with his
legendary contempt for

1451
01:22:20,840 --> 01:22:24,079
what he does for a living,
but he was a little more

1452
01:22:24,079 --> 01:22:26,840
fun about it, and he was also
respectful to all of us.

1453
01:22:27,199 --> 01:22:32,619
Val was best described by someone
as a prep school bully.

1454
01:22:33,260 --> 01:22:35,220
In the makeup room, he came to me, and

1455
01:22:35,220 --> 01:22:37,539
he's like, you know, I
saw Europa Europa.

1456
01:22:37,860 --> 01:22:38,860
You're a very good actor.

1457
01:22:39,119 --> 01:22:40,180
I like what you did there.

1458
01:22:40,520 --> 01:22:41,760
I'm like, oh, nice, thank you.

1459
01:22:42,360 --> 01:22:45,100
Yeah, just to make one thing
clear here, you know, if

1460
01:22:45,100 --> 01:22:48,659
it's ever gonna be between you
and me, it's gonna be me.

1461
01:22:50,320 --> 01:22:52,020
And then he walked away.

1462
01:22:53,320 --> 01:22:56,119
Val was next to the camera here,
and he was sitting in a chair,

1463
01:22:56,220 --> 01:22:59,360
and then he sort of started to squat
down, and he was off camera,

1464
01:22:59,460 --> 01:23:03,880
and he was doing his lines, and the
focus puller was right next

1465
01:23:03,880 --> 01:23:07,960
to him, and this guy had, I mean, we
were in the jungle for whatever.

1466
01:23:07,960 --> 01:23:13,880
Eight weeks, and his hair, his sideburns
had grown, you know, he

1467
01:23:13,880 --> 01:23:17,640
hadn't been trimming, so they were,
you know, scraggly, and the

1468
01:23:17,640 --> 01:23:23,500
guy's sitting there, and Val was
smoking a cigarette, and he

1469
01:23:24,040 --> 01:23:29,400
goes, and he starts to burn the end of
this guy's hair during the take.

1470
01:23:29,619 --> 01:23:34,940
It became a kind of, one of
the triggers that started

1471
01:23:34,940 --> 01:23:39,360
the crew to really not put up
with any shit, so to speak.

1472
01:23:39,619 --> 01:23:43,039
Marlon, I guess, didn't like Kilmer,
and was not a fan, anyway.

1473
01:23:43,220 --> 01:23:48,140
There was one scene where Marlon and
Kilmer were gonna be together.

1474
01:23:48,520 --> 01:23:50,699
Val sits down, tries to talk to him.

1475
01:23:51,039 --> 01:23:52,760
He says, so, have you been
out on the reef?

1476
01:23:53,340 --> 01:23:56,440
And Brando just looks at
him and says, the reef?

1477
01:23:58,300 --> 01:23:59,420
I own a reef.

1478
01:24:01,000 --> 01:24:02,920
I got reefs coming out of my ass.

1479
01:24:03,420 --> 01:24:05,420
And that was it, that was their
whole conversation.

1480
01:24:05,420 --> 01:24:08,220
Kilmer didn't like Brando, Brando
didn't like Kilmer.

1481
01:24:08,440 --> 01:24:09,980
They all didn't like Frankenheimer.

1482
01:24:10,159 --> 01:24:11,260
Frankenheimer didn't like them.

1483
01:24:11,539 --> 01:24:15,579
When Frankenheimer was on set one
day, I remember him saying to a

1484
01:24:15,579 --> 01:24:18,600
few of us that were standing around,
you know, if I was directing a

1485
01:24:18,600 --> 01:24:21,279
film called The Life of Val Kilmer,
I wouldn't have that prick in it.

1486
01:24:21,600 --> 01:24:27,119
Well, Frankenheimer was equally powerless
to wrangle these massive egos.

1487
01:24:27,560 --> 01:24:29,699
Yeah, I think he started to get
a bit depressed at some

1488
01:24:29,699 --> 01:24:32,760
points, and I would go and cheer
him up, you know, on night

1489
01:24:32,760 --> 01:24:36,020
shoots, I would go and find him,
and we would chat a little bit.

1490
01:24:36,560 --> 01:24:38,260
We had a late call, it
was a night shoot.

1491
01:24:38,600 --> 01:24:41,279
We got everybody, all of these
people in their makeups.

1492
01:24:41,619 --> 01:24:43,159
We go trucking out to set.

1493
01:24:43,739 --> 01:24:46,300
We're out sitting around,
and we're sitting

1494
01:24:46,300 --> 01:24:50,560
around, and we're sitting around,
nothing's happening.

1495
01:24:50,960 --> 01:24:53,000
Finally, we corral the AD, and we're

1496
01:24:53,000 --> 01:24:55,539
just like, what's happening,
what's going on?

1497
01:24:56,159 --> 01:24:57,159
And he's like, well,

1498
01:24:59,360 --> 01:25:03,500
Marlon won't come out of his trailer
till Val comes out of his trailer.

1499
01:25:04,500 --> 01:25:08,460
And Val won't come out of his trailer till
Marlon comes out of his trailer.

1500
01:25:09,300 --> 01:25:12,579
And we're like, oh, you gotta
be kidding me, you know?

1501
01:25:12,680 --> 01:25:14,640
The actors were really disheartened.

1502
01:25:15,400 --> 01:25:17,400
Yeah, three and a half hour makeups.

1503
01:25:17,800 --> 01:25:19,760
You didn't know if they were
gonna be shot, but

1504
01:25:19,760 --> 01:25:22,159
you still had to do your
best work because you

1505
01:25:22,159 --> 01:25:24,320
couldn't leave any edges up
or anything like that.

1506
01:25:24,400 --> 01:25:27,500
You still had to put in major
effort, and then the

1507
01:25:27,500 --> 01:25:30,600
actors go out and sit in the sun,
and they don't get shot.

1508
01:25:30,600 --> 01:25:33,460
Most of the time, they
didn't get shot.

1509
01:25:33,579 --> 01:25:35,800
For days and days when you're
sitting around in a tent

1510
01:25:35,800 --> 01:25:38,779
waiting for Brando or Kilmer
to decide whether they're

1511
01:25:38,779 --> 01:25:41,140
gonna shoot anything that day,
night shoots would finish

1512
01:25:41,140 --> 01:25:44,720
with huge alcohol orders of bottles
of spirits at seven

1513
01:25:44,720 --> 01:25:47,159
in the morning and retiring back to
someone's room for the morning.

1514
01:25:47,600 --> 01:25:50,619
We were being paid above equity minimum
to work on a major feature film.

1515
01:25:50,720 --> 01:25:54,619
We were being paid very healthy per diems
to stay in a very nice hotel.

1516
01:25:55,020 --> 01:25:58,840
I know with my per diems one week, I bought
a huge Scalextrics racetrack.

1517
01:25:58,840 --> 01:26:02,560
Other people were buying equally
ridiculous things, and

1518
01:26:03,380 --> 01:26:06,119
every person's room towards
the end became like a

1519
01:26:06,119 --> 01:26:09,140
different place to go and visit and
a different place to go and play.

1520
01:26:09,300 --> 01:26:11,720
We quite often would make up little

1521
01:26:12,360 --> 01:26:16,900
films or sing songs or a
lot of chess playing.

1522
01:26:17,300 --> 01:26:18,880
There was a lot of sex
going on between

1523
01:26:18,880 --> 01:26:20,159
people that shouldn't have
been having sex.

1524
01:26:20,239 --> 01:26:21,460
There was a lot of drugs around.

1525
01:26:22,020 --> 01:26:24,000
Yeah, I smoked a lot of pot.

1526
01:26:24,340 --> 01:26:27,500
It was a party most of the time,
you know, interrupted to go

1527
01:26:27,500 --> 01:26:30,940
out, put costumes on and do some
madness that wasn't scripted.

1528
01:26:31,100 --> 01:26:34,619
And as it went on, it descended into
more and more kind of madness.

1529
01:26:34,940 --> 01:26:38,600
I think we forgot that we actually
had normal lives elsewhere.

1530
01:26:38,900 --> 01:26:43,140
This became our normality.

1531
01:26:44,000 --> 01:26:49,500
♪

1532
01:26:59,149 --> 01:27:02,710
At one time, I had 10 extras.

1533
01:27:03,569 --> 01:27:07,049
Um, as soon as John arrived,
his comment, I think,

1534
01:27:07,129 --> 01:27:09,769
was, um, I can't make this
picture with 10 extras.

1535
01:27:10,029 --> 01:27:11,029
I want 100.

1536
01:27:11,529 --> 01:27:13,949
This was suddenly like, oh, my God.

1537
01:27:14,109 --> 01:27:18,189
They advertised for ferals
and hippies and

1538
01:27:18,189 --> 01:27:21,089
people with amputations and
anything they could

1539
01:27:21,089 --> 01:27:23,489
work with to make a sort of,
like, bunch of monsters.

1540
01:27:23,809 --> 01:27:24,869
-Yeah.
-They were the hippies.

1541
01:27:24,889 --> 01:27:25,889
They had dropped out.

1542
01:27:25,969 --> 01:27:27,089
They were living on the dole.

1543
01:27:27,089 --> 01:27:29,349
They were living in the woods,
just sleeping in the woods.

1544
01:27:29,569 --> 01:27:31,250
They were all sleeping
with each other.

1545
01:27:31,629 --> 01:27:33,009
Dreadlocks unwashed.

1546
01:27:33,429 --> 01:27:34,909
Tattoos, piercings everywhere.

1547
01:27:35,409 --> 01:27:37,449
They were the island of Dr. Moreau.

1548
01:27:37,609 --> 01:27:40,250
So there'd be lots of, um, guitars.

1549
01:27:40,849 --> 01:27:43,349
There were fire eaters and
people on stilts and

1550
01:27:43,349 --> 01:27:46,849
people, you know, spinning discs,
and they were all on acid.

1551
01:27:47,429 --> 01:27:49,549
It was the wildest thing
I'd ever seen.

1552
01:27:49,670 --> 01:27:54,089
It was like we had our own little freak
show circus at base camp all the time.

1553
01:27:54,670 --> 01:27:55,670
It was great.

1554
01:28:03,149 --> 01:28:07,189
I got back in and I was working as
an extra now so I was working

1555
01:28:07,729 --> 01:28:10,389
with this friend of mine, Danu, who
was part of the household we

1556
01:28:10,389 --> 01:28:15,289
were living in and basically Danu,
he would just come and go from

1557
01:28:15,289 --> 01:28:18,569
Cairns and sort of spend his time sort of
roaming about and making didgeridoos.

1558
01:28:18,729 --> 01:28:20,889
He's back from this fruit farm, this

1559
01:28:20,889 --> 01:28:22,469
organic fruit farm that was
out in the Tablelands.

1560
01:28:22,809 --> 01:28:25,109
He just sort of said off the cuff,
oh yeah, there's this guy out

1561
01:28:25,109 --> 01:28:30,109
there, this crazy guy that's just
raving about how Val Kilmer's

1562
01:28:30,109 --> 01:28:32,309
ruined his life and he's
out there just

1563
01:28:32,309 --> 01:28:35,489
smoking wads of pot and
I was going, what?

1564
01:28:35,889 --> 01:28:37,409
And you know, suddenly I was
actually listening to what

1565
01:28:37,409 --> 01:28:39,250
he was saying, I was going,
just say that again, and I

1566
01:28:39,250 --> 01:28:40,809
was going, oh fuck, you know,
he's talking about Richard.

1567
01:28:41,029 --> 01:28:43,969
During that time I ended up staying
out on a huge chunk of

1568
01:28:43,969 --> 01:28:46,149
rainforest owned by this farmer
who had lost the use of his

1569
01:28:46,149 --> 01:28:49,670
legs, a place called the Mary River,
which was a very nice spot,

1570
01:28:49,729 --> 01:28:55,250
no crocodiles, healthy weather, coconuts,
cassava, yam and fish in the river.

1571
01:28:55,509 --> 01:28:58,750
So yeah, I got left in isolation
and then, you know, one

1572
01:28:58,750 --> 01:29:02,429
night I saw a light in the forest
further down river and

1573
01:29:02,429 --> 01:29:04,389
realised that there were other
people down there, camping

1574
01:29:04,389 --> 01:29:08,009
down there, and the next morning
I walked down the river

1575
01:29:08,009 --> 01:29:11,909
and discovered that there were extras
from the island of Doctor Moreau.

1576
01:29:12,049 --> 01:29:13,409
I was like, dude, we've got to go and

1577
01:29:13,409 --> 01:29:15,189
get him because everyone's
looking for him.

1578
01:29:15,309 --> 01:29:18,089
We walk up this river, there's a big
cast iron bathtub sort of by

1579
01:29:18,089 --> 01:29:20,389
the side of the river with a fire
underneath it, so someone's

1580
01:29:20,389 --> 01:29:24,049
like, you know, heating up some water
to have a bath and it's Richard.

1581
01:29:24,549 --> 01:29:26,309
Dana and I just kind of walked up and

1582
01:29:26,309 --> 01:29:29,429
said, dude, what are you
doing and come with us.

1583
01:29:29,529 --> 01:29:31,889
I explained that if I did that
I'd be breaking contract.

1584
01:29:32,269 --> 01:29:34,989
That would mean that New Line could
technically refuse to pay

1585
01:29:34,989 --> 01:29:37,469
me a dime and that I was currently
still in negotiation with them.

1586
01:29:37,569 --> 01:29:41,649
It could be a bad idea but I did want to
see what was going on, I was curious.

1587
01:29:41,909 --> 01:29:45,109
So he basically jumped in the
car and came back to Cairns.

1588
01:29:45,250 --> 01:29:48,589
No one from the house let the secret
out that he was there, that, you

1589
01:29:48,589 --> 01:29:52,049
know, that was all pretty tight so,
because we knew that we were

1590
01:29:52,049 --> 01:29:54,229
sitting on something sort of like,
we knew something was going to

1591
01:29:54,229 --> 01:29:58,369
happen with Richard, just being who
he is and the situation he was in,

1592
01:29:58,989 --> 01:30:00,189
it was just like, okay, let's just sit

1593
01:30:00,189 --> 01:30:02,670
back and watch what this
maniac's going to do.

1594
01:30:02,969 --> 01:30:06,589
I'd come home with the script with
all the new coloured pages

1595
01:30:06,589 --> 01:30:10,109
in it, all the amendments and,
you know, Richard would be

1596
01:30:10,109 --> 01:30:13,969
there waiting for me with a massive
joint, you know, sort of

1597
01:30:13,969 --> 01:30:17,869
waiting to rip into the damage they've
done to his script, you know.

1598
01:30:18,289 --> 01:30:21,250
And then he throws a wobbly
to me, he says to me,

1599
01:30:21,269 --> 01:30:24,269
Dave, he says, he said, I
want to get onto the set

1600
01:30:24,269 --> 01:30:27,109
and I was going, and how do you
envisage that, Richard?

1601
01:30:28,170 --> 01:30:32,909
He says to me, well, I want
you to teach me how to

1602
01:30:33,909 --> 01:30:38,210
walk in a fashion so that I'm
just one of the extras.

1603
01:30:40,529 --> 01:30:44,809
I ended up borrowing Lewis's
Dogman outfit, which is

1604
01:30:44,809 --> 01:30:48,189
a some kind of Stan Winston
original now, 20 years

1605
01:30:48,189 --> 01:30:52,349
on, fallen prey to the leprosy
that afflicts foam latex.

1606
01:30:52,689 --> 01:30:54,349
But, you know, it was
a full head Dogman

1607
01:30:54,349 --> 01:30:58,969
mask and it came with
a jalaba and claws.

1608
01:30:59,349 --> 01:31:02,869
He got changed in the van so no
one saw him and we all got our

1609
01:31:02,869 --> 01:31:06,789
sort of like costumes on, these latex
beast masks and everything.

1610
01:31:07,549 --> 01:31:10,069
And then we sort of like, I remember
we sat there and he's like,

1611
01:31:10,149 --> 01:31:12,929
you know, he smoked one big fat joint
for like, you know, good luck.

1612
01:31:13,109 --> 01:31:18,109
And the way he went and then sort of like
emerged into the, into the people.

1613
01:31:18,549 --> 01:31:20,769
It got so hot when we were working.

1614
01:31:21,049 --> 01:31:23,170
So I was trying to give them
breaks as often as I could.

1615
01:31:23,549 --> 01:31:25,369
And they would pull the head
back and drink some water.

1616
01:31:25,710 --> 01:31:29,309
And there was this guy, one of them that
was never doing, I kept watching him.

1617
01:31:29,489 --> 01:31:31,229
And he would never take his head off.

1618
01:31:31,369 --> 01:31:32,809
And I thought, well, that guy's nuts.

1619
01:31:32,929 --> 01:31:35,949
You know, I started to think, well,
he's going to just die.

1620
01:31:36,029 --> 01:31:38,909
Out of 300 extras in this tent, like

1621
01:31:38,909 --> 01:31:41,229
Richard's the only one who hasn't
taken his mask off.

1622
01:31:41,449 --> 01:31:42,609
He was the bulldog man.

1623
01:31:42,769 --> 01:31:45,949
And he was, did this great job of jumping
around and doing this weird stuff.

1624
01:31:46,109 --> 01:31:48,489
And I, and I went to him and I said,
no, it was really great.

1625
01:31:48,529 --> 01:31:51,089
I thank you. It was, I really
enjoyed watching you.

1626
01:31:51,170 --> 01:31:53,809
It was a nice job. And he goes,
he said, Oh, thank you.

1627
01:31:54,289 --> 01:31:57,589
And he had a completely different
accent than anybody else.

1628
01:31:58,129 --> 01:31:59,750
And then I started to wonder.

1629
01:32:00,149 --> 01:32:03,449
And I think once that rumor started,
that the Richard Stanley

1630
01:32:03,449 --> 01:32:07,250
was in the background that I think
that just grew into sort of

1631
01:32:07,250 --> 01:32:10,309
stories about Richard Stanley then
wanting to sabotage the shoot.

1632
01:32:10,469 --> 01:32:11,969
I did hear about it.

1633
01:32:15,129 --> 01:32:19,649
Look, maybe, I don't know, it was the
tropics and he went a bit troppo.

1634
01:32:19,809 --> 01:32:20,989
They've been shitting themselves
leading up

1635
01:32:20,989 --> 01:32:22,670
to that thinking Richard's
out there somewhere.

1636
01:32:23,089 --> 01:32:25,409
And they all they all they
imagine doing some

1637
01:32:25,409 --> 01:32:27,149
sort of like, you know, sabotage
sort of thing.

1638
01:32:27,509 --> 01:32:29,889
But when it came to it,
there was no, you

1639
01:32:29,889 --> 01:32:31,869
know, we just drove onto set
with him in the car.

1640
01:32:32,569 --> 01:32:34,509
Like there was no security really.

1641
01:32:34,509 --> 01:32:37,629
There are a whole lot of extras
on set this night.

1642
01:32:38,369 --> 01:32:43,409
And it was where we were meant to be lighting
Dr. Moro's character on the pyre.

1643
01:32:43,649 --> 01:32:46,170
Richard was on set.

1644
01:32:46,569 --> 01:32:48,009
He was standing at the back of the set

1645
01:32:48,009 --> 01:32:50,469
next to a load of cans
that said gasoline.

1646
01:32:51,210 --> 01:32:55,250
So he was in effect standing behind
this huge arsenal of petrol.

1647
01:32:55,569 --> 01:32:56,589
With a monster mask.

1648
01:32:57,069 --> 01:32:59,369
The first thing somebody does,
prop one of the prop guys.

1649
01:32:59,449 --> 01:33:00,769
Okay, hey, you over there.

1650
01:33:00,849 --> 01:33:01,849
Here's a torch.

1651
01:33:02,029 --> 01:33:03,029
You go over there.

1652
01:33:03,029 --> 01:33:05,710
As a beast person on set,
I was constantly

1653
01:33:05,710 --> 01:33:09,429
there and being directed
to take a hatchet and

1654
01:33:09,429 --> 01:33:12,589
smash the furniture or to douse
the place in gasoline.

1655
01:33:12,750 --> 01:33:14,989
Much of what I was doing as a
beast person was capering up

1656
01:33:14,989 --> 01:33:18,909
and down being destructive and
vindictive in the background.

1657
01:33:19,089 --> 01:33:20,649
But as it was part of
the movie was okay.

1658
01:33:21,129 --> 01:33:23,489
See, if he really was troppo,
he would have just,

1659
01:33:24,250 --> 01:33:26,649
he could have burnt the whole
set down there in there.

1660
01:33:27,149 --> 01:33:29,789
That would have been crazy cool.

1661
01:33:34,899 --> 01:33:38,139
I had the privileged position of being
able to see what was going

1662
01:33:38,139 --> 01:33:40,939
on but at the same time the rather
nightmarish position of

1663
01:33:40,939 --> 01:33:44,899
Discovering that I was now one of
the beast people on the island

1664
01:33:44,899 --> 01:33:50,139
of Dr. Moreau that I had completed a full
arc from create a figure to dog

1665
01:33:51,000 --> 01:33:55,000
♪

1666
01:33:55,790 --> 01:33:59,010
Fortunately, John Frankenheimer was an

1667
01:33:59,010 --> 01:34:02,270
unbelievably professional,
real trooper kind of guy.

1668
01:34:02,610 --> 01:34:06,289
He really understood what
the issues were and

1669
01:34:07,670 --> 01:34:11,409
did wrangle Marlon and all
these other maniacs

1670
01:34:14,070 --> 01:34:15,070
pretty well.

1671
01:34:15,190 --> 01:34:16,570
And at least we came out with a film.

1672
01:34:17,869 --> 01:34:19,270
We lost money on the film.

1673
01:34:19,369 --> 01:34:23,110
I don't recall how much,
but not as much as we

1674
01:34:23,110 --> 01:34:25,029
would have lost if we didn't
have the film at all.

1675
01:34:25,270 --> 01:34:27,529
My hopes were really high.

1676
01:34:28,190 --> 01:34:30,570
You know, major picture, great role.

1677
01:34:30,869 --> 01:34:32,710
I really thought this is cool.

1678
01:34:35,949 --> 01:34:38,210
It's gonna be great and I was very

1679
01:34:38,210 --> 01:34:40,289
disappointed by all the
things that happened.

1680
01:34:40,470 --> 01:34:45,670
I mean basically, you know, they
They they gave me a great part.

1681
01:34:45,869 --> 01:34:51,489
I had a director that liked me
and that respected me to You

1682
01:34:51,489 --> 01:34:55,470
know to have basically to have the
three or four scenes in the movie

1683
01:34:57,550 --> 01:35:00,989
What people choose to do in
the name of politics which

1684
01:35:00,989 --> 01:35:05,050
is basically in the name of
money There are no morals.

1685
01:35:05,289 --> 01:35:09,369
There are no There's no
integrity at all.

1686
01:35:10,010 --> 01:35:14,210
They'd sell their child down the
river for money I I'm damn

1687
01:35:14,210 --> 01:35:17,869
curious to I Wish we could go back
in time and have an or have

1688
01:35:17,869 --> 01:35:21,069
an alternate universe where Richard
gets to direct his movie I

1689
01:35:21,069 --> 01:35:24,210
think if Richard had made the film
for eight million dollars

1690
01:35:24,210 --> 01:35:26,729
with good actors and people that

1691
01:35:26,729 --> 01:35:30,329
were under his Direction And

1692
01:35:31,190 --> 01:35:35,109
he's a good director, I don't think
he's a very bright guy and a

1693
01:35:35,109 --> 01:35:38,210
lot of good ideas I don't
Think that he

1694
01:35:38,210 --> 01:35:41,029
could handle a big at that
point a big crew.

1695
01:35:41,170 --> 01:35:45,729
I'm sure there is a place for
Richard Stanley with with a

1696
01:35:45,729 --> 01:35:50,130
terrific independent company
Backed by people

1697
01:35:50,550 --> 01:35:52,109
who really believed in him.

1698
01:35:52,189 --> 01:35:54,909
I mean basically after Murrow
he vanished into the

1699
01:35:54,909 --> 01:35:57,689
wilderness, you know And I didn't
know what had become of him.

1700
01:35:57,909 --> 01:35:59,750
I Never heard from him again.

1701
01:36:00,149 --> 01:36:02,250
I've often wondered what happened
to Richard Stanley

1702
01:36:03,000 --> 01:36:08,000
♪

1703
01:36:08,199 --> 01:36:10,279
The perception of me in
Hollywood at that

1704
01:36:10,279 --> 01:36:11,739
point in time was that
I no longer existed.

1705
01:36:12,479 --> 01:36:15,139
My agent never returned any of
my phone calls from the time

1706
01:36:15,139 --> 01:36:17,659
that the main decision was made
to remove me from the project.

1707
01:36:18,039 --> 01:36:22,920
You know, when you get really, really
hurt like that, you're so

1708
01:36:22,920 --> 01:36:27,960
gun-shy about ever putting yourself
in that kind of a position again.

1709
01:36:28,500 --> 01:36:31,739
I saw him in London a couple
years later, and I remember

1710
01:36:31,739 --> 01:36:34,220
him saying, I don't know if I'll
ever make another movie again.

1711
01:36:34,260 --> 01:36:35,260
I don't think I will.

1712
01:36:35,899 --> 01:36:37,899
I can't even bear the
idea of being behind

1713
01:36:37,899 --> 01:36:40,939
a camera I just, it makes
me want to scream.

1714
01:36:41,579 --> 01:36:44,920
Marlon Brando told me
that everyone in the

1715
01:36:44,920 --> 01:36:47,859
industry were hyenas, that
I should try and take

1716
01:36:47,859 --> 01:36:49,939
care of them and try and make
a better life for myself.

1717
01:36:50,500 --> 01:36:55,500
♪

1718
01:36:56,159 --> 01:37:00,399
Like the lead character in Dr.
Moreau, I found myself

1719
01:37:01,560 --> 01:37:05,720
increasingly unable to fit in with
the so-called real world.

1720
01:37:06,699 --> 01:37:09,800
And I found myself much
happier away from

1721
01:37:09,800 --> 01:37:12,099
people and up the mountain
where I am now.

1722
01:37:12,479 --> 01:37:16,420
I eventually moved to Montségur in
the French Pyrenees, the scene

1723
01:37:16,420 --> 01:37:21,079
of the last stand of the Cathars
in 1244, who are a bunch of

1724
01:37:21,779 --> 01:37:25,500
pagans and heretics who are basically
slaughtered by the outside world.

1725
01:37:25,500 --> 01:37:28,000
The various nation-states
basically formed up and

1726
01:37:28,000 --> 01:37:30,559
decided to crush the weird ones
that didn't really fit in.

1727
01:37:31,059 --> 01:37:33,899
To a large extent, we're still able to

1728
01:37:33,899 --> 01:37:36,779
perform our strange experiments
of reality.

1729
01:37:36,920 --> 01:37:37,920
We're still able to shoot.

1730
01:37:37,979 --> 01:37:41,079
I'd like to continue and maybe make
something a little bit longer.

1731
01:37:41,659 --> 01:37:43,899
Maybe next time around I
won't feature dogmen.

1732
01:37:44,519 --> 01:37:47,859
Maybe I won't have a whole lost
civilization or try to

1733
01:37:48,739 --> 01:37:52,079
completely monkey-wrench 21st
century culture and

1734
01:37:52,079 --> 01:37:54,739
technology in the same way,
but something a little bit

1735
01:37:54,739 --> 01:38:00,639
more modest, but still red in tooth
and claw would seem in order.

1736
01:38:10,000 --> 01:38:15,000
♪

1737
01:38:15,149 --> 01:38:19,369
You know, it's a part of my youth,
that's how I see it.

1738
01:38:19,389 --> 01:38:24,229
That it was like a crazy chapter
that became some

1739
01:38:24,829 --> 01:38:28,809
lunatic movie that's known as one
of the worst films ever made.

1740
01:38:30,489 --> 01:38:33,909
Yeah, that's not a source
of pride for me.

1741
01:38:35,449 --> 01:38:38,569
I'm proud to be involved in one
of the worst movies ever.

1742
01:38:38,849 --> 01:38:41,489
It's just awesome to see how
much effort it goes into.

1743
01:38:42,129 --> 01:38:46,229
It's a little stinker, like,
you know, rock and roll.

1744
01:38:50,500 --> 01:38:55,500
♪

1745
01:38:55,750 --> 01:39:00,500
♪