This is one of my favorite documentaries; personally, I'm not a fan of the documentary genre it mainly depends on the subject matter. This tackles a subject I love which is film and best of all on its category on lost films or incomplete projects.
Which is really cool because that's something that actually occurs all the time in the film business, seeing this documentary makes me wonder if there will be any more documentaries on other lost films which would be cool and there are to this day several still out there. It's both a fascinating but at the same time sad watch because in the end you can't help but wonder what could have been, let alone how much further Richard's directing carrier could have gone.
Richard Stanley is one of my favorite movie directors, my favorite film of his and one of my personal favorite films of all time was of course "Hardware". He was indeed a guy who beats to a different drummer but there's nothing wrong with that as he just had this unique vision in his films as well as philosophy in life.
Really like Richard explaing what he had in mind for his adaptation of "The Island of Dr. Morneau" as well as some history and why he really liked the book. Which is cool since that is my favorite books of all time and favorite book from the author. This was going to be his passion project, all movie directors always have that one movie they really wanted to make since the beginning. We see a lot of those art panels on Richard's vision for most of the movie like on most of the mutants and even scenes of the film. Seeing those things makes me wish they did a graphic novel adaption of Stanley's script and original vision, and maybe there will somewhere along the line as most comic companies like "Boom Studios" and "Dark Horse" have done adaptations with certain movies scripts.
There truly was a lot of potential as you see lots of different designs of all the mutant creatures and the features they had. Some of the setting and scenes he had in mind like seeing all the different kind of mutants all in one office was cool looking as we seen all the different kinds of species of the animal kingdom there. And some interesting and strange scenes like Morneau delivering a mutant baby and looking like the messiah, which was to further show how deep the doctor has drowned in his god complex and what in his mind he sees himself as; yeah Stanley was really on to something.
Unfortunately, the stars just were out of alinement for Stanley as he traveled straight to bad luck central as production became troubled even before he started. I really wish that the studio gave Richard Stanley another chance to direct the film he wanted, instead of all together losing patience with him all together which was pathetic, seriously it wasn't his fault there was a hurricane at a certain amount of time, Val being rude and egocentric, and some other bad luck that followed; yeah there was just a lot of bad karma brewing.
We really get in depth as to how it all went downhill hard and fast after Richard Stanley got fired, there are a lot of sad but strangely fascinating tales toward the troubled production and the chaos that ensued. I'll just state a few of the things that went wrong.
Casting Val Kilmer was a mistake, for the record he's not one of my favorite actors. In real life he was a nightmare to work with at the time was just on an egocentric high almost as much as Brie Larson right now. It's sort of funny despite the fame he had back then as time went on, he's now became slightly forgotten where director Richard Stanley is now fondly remembered.
The studio mistakenly thought with him in the film the actor would be a big draw, what was a mistake number one because despite the movies he was in, he wasn't the ace card like with "Tombstone" I saw that because that had one of my favorite actors Kurt Russell as the lead, and that review is a story for another time.He was constantly uncooperative and rude toward the director and all of the cast; the stories go on and their not pretty much like the production latter on.
Marlon Brando also just shouldn't have done it, no offense to the guy but due to the tragedy that befallen him it really did affect his abilities, he was just in a bad state of mind. They should have had someone else play Dr. Morneau like Ian Machellen or Patrick Stewart, I don't know at least someone else that truly can fit the role.
The director they replaced for the film was another mistake John Frankenheimer who did a horror film before "Prophesy" which was cool creature feature, but that was years ago and a story for another time. And at the time he was on losing streak central, sadly this film did nothing to get him out of there instead just put him deeper in it.
Despite his efforts they just weren't good enough as it seem like he either didn't know what he was doing or even what to do or let alone just seemed like his heart just wasn't in it which partial caused him to make bad choices left and right during production. Let alone being somewhat of a tyrant which created bad relations with cast and crew.
Of course, we see Rob Morrow was going to play the main protagonist which would have been really cool, yeah I have seen a little of the show "Northern Exposure". Which makes this sadder as this film had things gone well, would have been a vehicle for him to launch to possible super stardom. However, the interview with him I thought was a little brief, which I'll admit is one weak point in this documentary. Would have liked a longer in depth interview on his reasons for walking away and how things went wrong with him. Let alone the actor that replaced him later is not in this documentary or even mentioned so it was a bit of a lost opportunity for some insight on his experience.
In fact the studio lost a lot of opportunities in their mishandling of the production like the other stars that were possibly going to be in this film Bruce Willis, James Woods, and even Mark Dacoscos. Any of them or all in the film that would of been something.
This documentary in a way is sort of a fable on why studio interference shouldn't happen and instead back their directors up like they should it's their job after all, and let directors do things their way or no one goes home happy. But also, never to ignore carnal rules in movie making, cast correctly and put things in the right hands.
Overall, if you're a fan of the director Richard Stanley or just simply interested in the production process of film in general, this is documentary you won't mind getting lost in.
Rating: 3 and a half stars
Which is really cool because that's something that actually occurs all the time in the film business, seeing this documentary makes me wonder if there will be any more documentaries on other lost films which would be cool and there are to this day several still out there. It's both a fascinating but at the same time sad watch because in the end you can't help but wonder what could have been, let alone how much further Richard's directing carrier could have gone.
Richard Stanley is one of my favorite movie directors, my favorite film of his and one of my personal favorite films of all time was of course "Hardware". He was indeed a guy who beats to a different drummer but there's nothing wrong with that as he just had this unique vision in his films as well as philosophy in life.
Really like Richard explaing what he had in mind for his adaptation of "The Island of Dr. Morneau" as well as some history and why he really liked the book. Which is cool since that is my favorite books of all time and favorite book from the author. This was going to be his passion project, all movie directors always have that one movie they really wanted to make since the beginning. We see a lot of those art panels on Richard's vision for most of the movie like on most of the mutants and even scenes of the film. Seeing those things makes me wish they did a graphic novel adaption of Stanley's script and original vision, and maybe there will somewhere along the line as most comic companies like "Boom Studios" and "Dark Horse" have done adaptations with certain movies scripts.
There truly was a lot of potential as you see lots of different designs of all the mutant creatures and the features they had. Some of the setting and scenes he had in mind like seeing all the different kind of mutants all in one office was cool looking as we seen all the different kinds of species of the animal kingdom there. And some interesting and strange scenes like Morneau delivering a mutant baby and looking like the messiah, which was to further show how deep the doctor has drowned in his god complex and what in his mind he sees himself as; yeah Stanley was really on to something.
Unfortunately, the stars just were out of alinement for Stanley as he traveled straight to bad luck central as production became troubled even before he started. I really wish that the studio gave Richard Stanley another chance to direct the film he wanted, instead of all together losing patience with him all together which was pathetic, seriously it wasn't his fault there was a hurricane at a certain amount of time, Val being rude and egocentric, and some other bad luck that followed; yeah there was just a lot of bad karma brewing.
We really get in depth as to how it all went downhill hard and fast after Richard Stanley got fired, there are a lot of sad but strangely fascinating tales toward the troubled production and the chaos that ensued. I'll just state a few of the things that went wrong.
Casting Val Kilmer was a mistake, for the record he's not one of my favorite actors. In real life he was a nightmare to work with at the time was just on an egocentric high almost as much as Brie Larson right now. It's sort of funny despite the fame he had back then as time went on, he's now became slightly forgotten where director Richard Stanley is now fondly remembered.
The studio mistakenly thought with him in the film the actor would be a big draw, what was a mistake number one because despite the movies he was in, he wasn't the ace card like with "Tombstone" I saw that because that had one of my favorite actors Kurt Russell as the lead, and that review is a story for another time.He was constantly uncooperative and rude toward the director and all of the cast; the stories go on and their not pretty much like the production latter on.
Marlon Brando also just shouldn't have done it, no offense to the guy but due to the tragedy that befallen him it really did affect his abilities, he was just in a bad state of mind. They should have had someone else play Dr. Morneau like Ian Machellen or Patrick Stewart, I don't know at least someone else that truly can fit the role.
The director they replaced for the film was another mistake John Frankenheimer who did a horror film before "Prophesy" which was cool creature feature, but that was years ago and a story for another time. And at the time he was on losing streak central, sadly this film did nothing to get him out of there instead just put him deeper in it.
Despite his efforts they just weren't good enough as it seem like he either didn't know what he was doing or even what to do or let alone just seemed like his heart just wasn't in it which partial caused him to make bad choices left and right during production. Let alone being somewhat of a tyrant which created bad relations with cast and crew.
Of course, we see Rob Morrow was going to play the main protagonist which would have been really cool, yeah I have seen a little of the show "Northern Exposure". Which makes this sadder as this film had things gone well, would have been a vehicle for him to launch to possible super stardom. However, the interview with him I thought was a little brief, which I'll admit is one weak point in this documentary. Would have liked a longer in depth interview on his reasons for walking away and how things went wrong with him. Let alone the actor that replaced him later is not in this documentary or even mentioned so it was a bit of a lost opportunity for some insight on his experience.
In fact the studio lost a lot of opportunities in their mishandling of the production like the other stars that were possibly going to be in this film Bruce Willis, James Woods, and even Mark Dacoscos. Any of them or all in the film that would of been something.
This documentary in a way is sort of a fable on why studio interference shouldn't happen and instead back their directors up like they should it's their job after all, and let directors do things their way or no one goes home happy. But also, never to ignore carnal rules in movie making, cast correctly and put things in the right hands.
Overall, if you're a fan of the director Richard Stanley or just simply interested in the production process of film in general, this is documentary you won't mind getting lost in.
Rating: 3 and a half stars