Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau

source: Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau

I heard about this documentary when I was researching for a piece on the original 30s film with Charles Laughton for the WBD crew and forthcoming book. Not particularly relevant but sounded interesting. And indeed it is, funny too and very well put together. Richard Stanley, whose Dust Devil, I enjoyed, came across as a very likeable and charismatic guy with plenty to say about his desire to make the film and the torturous process it turned out to be. I almost want to see the finished film now but the horror stories of Brando and Kilmer are somewhat off putting. Highly recommended for anyone who has seen the finished film or anybody interested in the film process, particularly when the location is in such an inhospitable place and there are so many extras with extravagant costumes/make-up - plus the truly horrendous sounding blokes with over inflated egos.

The making of the 1996 version of "The Island of Dr. Moreau" was such a disaster that articles, books and documentaries have been made about it, like this 2014 documentary "Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau." Stanley championed the film, wrote the screenplay and was set to direct, but was fired after a few days of shooting after conflicts with Val Kilmer, who wasn't in the best of moods due to being served divorce papers while on set. Actually that wasn't the main reason Stanley was fired. He was fine for small indie productions, but he was out of his league with a blockbuster like this. In his defense, the movie didn't start as a blockbuster, but simply a few notches more swanky than Stanley's previous two Indie flicks. Veteran filmmaker John Frankenheimer had to be brought in to save the production from being an utter loss. He got the job done, but his tyrannical approach didn't help matters. The situation was so bad that Fairuza Balk (the cat-lady, Aissa) literally tried to escape the remote set in Cairns, Australia, but she was caught at the airport in the nick of time. Add to this constant rewrites and Brando's well-known eccentricities, not helped by the recent suicide of his daughter, Cheyenne, and you have a formula for cinematic chaos! The fact that a semi-coherent, somewhat entertaining movie was made from such a debacle is remarkable. But this documentary is far more interesting and amusing. It's on par with similar docs, like "Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse" (1991). Some notables of the cast & crew unfortunately weren't interviewed (Kilmer, Ron Pearlman and David Thewlis), but more than enough were to accurately and entertainingly paint the picture of what went down. The film runs 1 hour, 37 minutes. GRADE: A

The appeal of this documentary is hearing how crazy things got during the making of Dr. Moreau. There are some unbelievable stories, many of them pretty humorous, about how out of control people got making this movie. Everyone interview for this documentary agreed that Val Kilmer and Marlon Brando were messing with people, and it sounds like Val did so in a mean spirited way. The stories about Marlon make you wonder more if he was totally deliberate or having some problems with cognition. For anyone interested in the creative process, film making specifically, it's an interesting look at something we usually never get to see. It made me think about how the movie industry invests so much into a film and how a few unprofessional performers can really put a production at risk. Fairuza Balk had the most interesting comments for me, maybe because she was the one person I was familiar with. Thinking back on how wild things got, it's almost surprising the movie wasn't worse than it is.

LOST SOUL: THE DOOMED JOURNEY OF RICHARD STANLEY'S ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU (2014). After having just seen Richard Stanley's 'comeback' film COLOR OUT OF SPACE, I figured it was time to finally catch up with this Documentary about the legendary bomb that cast out the filmmaker for two decades. Director David Gregory (who Produced an anthology that Stanley contributed a segment to) had easy access to his subject and filmed him at length. Gregory also assembled footage from various sources which were shot during MOREAU's production. The other principle interviews include New Line Cinema's Robert Shaye, Producer Edward Pressman and actors including Fairuza Balk (who comes off best) and Marco Hofschneider. The details and recollections are fascinating. It's pretty clear early on that this was going to be a difficult production even if everything went to plan. Needless to say, it didn't. Perhaps the most tragic error was made early on, when the proposed modestly budgeted $8M film started to accumulate stars to its cast, primarily Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer (hot off of Batman). Bruce Willis and James Woods were also attached at various points. The budget eventually ballooned to some $40M, which was considerable not only for an Indie at the time, but, for a Director like Stanley who had only two low budget features under his belt. Executive Producer Tim Zinneman claims in the film that he sensed that the eccentric Stanley was in over his head early on and insisted that a contingency be built in the budget to cover the cost of a replacement Director. Once pre-production began in earnest, Zinneman's fears seemed prescient. LOST SOUL Director Gregory clearly sympathizes with Richard Stanley, but no matter how much he tries, it's hard to escape the conclusion that he contributed mightily to his downfall. Not showing up to meetings, disappearing for hours and handing production personnel drawings instead of discussing issues with them is no way to conduct one's self. Still, you feel for Stanley. The biggest villains are Marlon Brando who didn't show up on time (and, maybe, just maybe 'save' Stanley) and, especially, Val Kilmer who apparently didn't want to be there and just decided to be a nuisance in ever way. Even when longtime veteran Director John Frankenheimer was brought in, even he couldn't tame the (real) beasts. As intrinsically interesting as the stories and footage is, I can't say I learned very much here. Most of these stories were well known at the time of the MOREAU's release. And, LOST SOUL as a Doc is pretty unfocused. It's just a bunch of segments presented in something of chronological order. Important details are glossed over while minute ones are covered in exhaustive detail. Richard Stanley disappears for long patches and his unifying voice is missed. There is no narration, and more importantly, no real vision here as to how to present the material. Still, no matter how middling the Documentary filmmaking is, LOST SOUL is an interesting look at one of the 90s most fascinating misfires.

Director David Gregory has a long history of behind-the-scenes documentary shorts, Lost Soul is more than just a making-of doc that would accompany The Island Of Dr. Moreau disc. Fans of cult director/writer Richard Stanley get a good insight into what makes this fascinating film maker tick. For followers of the novel and film itself Lost Souls also covers the earlier film attempts of H. G. Wells and looks at the books core themes and origin. Gregory offers a captivating documentary with its mix of archival materials and surviving-collaborator testimonies. It wonderfully chronicles how a conflict of vision, creative decisions, lack of interest and awful weather plagued the disastrous production and destroyed friendships with entertaining stories of behind-the- scenes drama including drugs, alcohol and egos. Sadly David Thewlis or Ron Perlman do not participate and it would have been interesting to hear their views. If you enjoyed Jodorowsky's Dune (2013) Lost In La Mancha (2002) basically other "failed film" documentaries - this is a must see.

The production of The island of Dr Moreau is one of misfortune, petty grudges and probably jealous sabotage. Richard Stanley who was to be the original director had been offered the "hot seat" after proving himself with a couple good indie films and a meeting with Marlon Brando. This should have been the small town boy makes good, a triumphant feather in his wide brimmed fedora hat, instead it was a disaster that almost cost him his sanity. The documentary follows the concept to production process of the massive calamity that was Dr Moreau, warts and all we are walked through the trails faced by Stanley and cast, from tropical storms to idiotic behaviour by the two "marquee" name stars. It is amazing that the film was ever finished let alone released (it is actually not a bad movie) with petty Val Kilmer and the stupid Marlon Brando trying to undermine the director while taking playground jabs at anybody they could. The crew and some of the people from New line cinema all have their versions of this story, the fact being that it seems like a perfect storm was created where everything that could fail did. Spectacularly. You may feel most for Stanley who seems like he was in over his head and lacking support from his studio and being green as far as big budget went buckled like a belt. If you are interested in the process of film making and want to see a real story of hard ship in this business this documentary should satisfy.

As the title indicates, Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (I'll just shorten that to Lost Soul for the rest of this) is the story behind the making of 1996's The Island of Dr. Moreau. Much of this film focuses on Richard Stanley's involvement with the film and how the production descended into chaos. Stanley was the driving force behind getting the project off the ground, only to be replaced as director before he could finish the film. The Island of Dr. Moreau was a colossal flop - both financially and critically. While there are aspects of the film I enjoy (and I admit I enjoy a lot of it for the wrong reasons), there's no denying the movie is pretty much a complete train wreck. One of the more interesting aspects of Lost Soul is the recounting of events that led to the disaster. It was a perfect storm - a studio with no faith in a director; a director in over his head; a constantly growing budget; isolated locations; monsoon like weather; actors in open rebellion;- anything that could go wrong did. Equally amazing to me is how many of the people involved in the film agreed to be interviewed for Lost Soul. From Stanley to studio head Bob Shaye to several of the actors involved to production and technical staff - you get to hear the stories of the doomed production from all sides. It's fascinating stuff. 7/10.

If you're a fan of documentaries about the making of films, have I got a movie for you! I remember going to see the last remake of H.G. Wells' novel, "The Island of Dr. Moreau" in the summer of 1996, fairly excited about it- being a fan of the novel and the film adaptation from the 1970's with Burt Lancaster/Michael York, and also excited with Marlon Brando in the title role. This was one of Val Kilmer's first post- "Batman Forvever" starring vehicles as well. So I was a bit surprised to see- who, David Thewlis-??- in the lead role of the hero, Val in a supporting role, Brando phoning (literally LOL) in his performance, and OMG- what a god-AWFUL heaping pile of s**t movie!! LOL Now, after seeing this movie, I know why! LOL Director Richard Stanley first made a name for himself having directed the early '90s sci-fi flick, "Hardware", and it was a pet project and lifelong dream of his to do a faithful big-screen adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel like me he had been a fan of since he was a kid. As Brando and Kilmer got involved, the project escalated into what would be his first big-budget studio picture, and everything went to hell in a handbasket! I was never sure about all those rumors I heard about Kilmer- but this film confirmed it since he was referred to more than once as a "prep school bully". And Brando!- OMG- let's just say he's right up there with his own category of cray-cray! IODM was eventually taken away from Stanley- he was booted off the set, and New Line Studios handed over the reigns to veteran filmmaker, John Frankenheimer, who was always the director I had associated with this movie. He was an "old school" director who hadn't had much experience with sci-fi, and didn't really get along with ANY-one in the movie! I read at Wikipedia on Kilmer's last day of shooting he said- "get that bast**d off my set!" LOL And you'll see where Mike Myers' inspiration for his character "Mini Me" came from- thanks again, Marlon! LMAO Well, for anyone interested in the back-story of this movie, I LOVED LOVED LOVED this doc., and I will say you will too! Now streaming at Netflix....

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) *** Well documented behind-the-scenes account of the train-wreck of the fruition to making of the 1996 remake of THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU shows how visionary filmmaker Richard Stanley's brainchild becomes a template in all-that-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong fiasco of a Hollywood movie with the machinations, egos, failures and ineptitude glommed together as a fable of be careful what you wish for in having a dream project dashed to bits and pretty-much-unrecognizable. While each noteworthy figurehead involved is painted as a villain from crazy Marlon Brando, vainglorious Val Kilmer and bullying filmmaker John Frankenheimer, filmmaker David Gregory also shows how the other flip of the coin - professionalism, partners-in-crime and truth in art - also attempted to counterbalance the toxicity and dark comic failure of an epic flop.