LOST SOUL: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau - Review

Trolling through Netflix (US version) very late one night recently, I stumbled upon a documentary about filmmaking, titled, Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau. And, WOW, what a rare find this gem of a doco has been! 

As a ‘failed’ feature filmmaker myself, having had a project collapse and die an inglorious death, I can somewhat relate to the crazy, chaotic and hilariously tragic tale of filmmaker Richard Stanley’s attempts to Direct the 1996 film, The Island of Dr. Moreau.

 
This documentary is a film about a film.

What were once primarily produced as ‘Bonus Features’ on DVD’s, ‘Making-of’ docos have moved beyond ‘Featurettes’ and have become feature-length documentaries, a sub-genre unto themselves.

With Lost Soul…  think making-of meets disaster-movie! And when I say disaster movie, I don’t mean erupting volcanos or towering infernos… I mean the production of the film itself was, quite literally, a disaster.

It’s a clever business model really. Employ a hungry uni student with a HD video cam on your film crew, pay them in catering, ‘experience’ and an IMDB credit, then if the proverbial hits the fan and the film collapses... Viola! You already have a ‘get out of jail free’ card to play by turning your ‘Featurette’ into a feature-length ‘making of’ documentary!

The documentary that kicked off this unique sub-genre was, of course, Hearts of Darkness, about the craziness and chaos behind the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s iconoclastic war film, Apocalypse Now.

Other (dis)honourable contributions to the films about films / making-of / disaster film doco genre include American Movie (1999), Overnight (2003) and Terry Gilliam’s Lost In La Mancha (2002) about the Monty Python Director's attempts to direct his problem-plagued-production, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, originally slated to star Johnny Depp. 

Most recently, we have also seen Jorodowsky’s Dune, about 70’s cult Director Jorodowsky’s plans to adapt the sci-fi novel Dune (which itself ended up a train wreck with original Director David Lynch removing his name from the credits) and Superman Lives, about Kevin Smith’s attempts to make a Superman film with Nicholas Cage in the lead role, two docos about films that never even got off the ground.

So whether it’s Martin Sheen having a heart attack whilst performing tai-chi naked in Hearts of Darkness ... or Val Kilmer refusing to come out of his trailer until Brando had come out of his in Lost Soul / Dr. Moreau …These making-of / disaster docos give us the back-story behind the infamous productions that spiralled out of control and became notorious disasters and train-wrecks unto themselves. (*Apocalypse Now being the obvious exception in that, whilst it was a disaster to produce, the film still went on to become a commercial and critical success and one of the greatest films of a generation!)

And what is another link between The Island of Dr. Moreau, Apocalypse Now and Hearts of Darkness??? Marlon Brando, of course! At his notorious, bloated, superstar, ego-maniac, petulant best! But Coppola, a big man and a superstar in his own right, could wrangle Brando, whereas this poor guy Richard Stanley was just a kid thrown into the deep end! And boy was he way, way, way out of his depth!

For those that haven’t seen it, The Island of Dr. Moreau is universally ranked as one of the worst films of all time, right up alongside ‘Razzie’s’ like The Room and Gigi.

 

*An illustration of Kilmer, Brando and Director Stanley.

The story comes from the novel of the same name, by esteemed sci-fi author H.G Wells, most famous for writing War of the Worlds and many other celebrated sci-fi novels.

As the documentary lays bare, The Island of Dr. Moreau had all the ingredients to be a hit; story by a legend of the sci-fi universe, one of the world’s biggest stars in Brando attached to play the title character and homo-erotic Top Gun heartthrob Val Kilmer playing opposite Brando. And then there was the Director, Richard Stanley, a young filmmaker whose star was certainly on the rise!

At that time, the South African Richard Stanley was only in his late twenties and coming off the back of two successful, but very small, indi cult films, Hardwired and Devil Dust.

The studio New Line Cinema enthusiastically green-lit production on Stanley’s third film ...Dr. Moreau, which was originally conceived as a modestly budgeted horror film for around $6-8million. However, as the project gained traction and buzz and when stars Brando and Kilmer came aboard in central roles, that modest $6-8 million budget quickly escalated to a $60-80 million dollar picture. Naturally, the studio became nervous, very nervous, and the undermining of the young Director began. 

* The young Richard Stanley prepping for Dr. Moreau.

From the interviews in Lost Soul… Stanley, a practitioner of Witchcraft, comes across as somewhat of an eccentric character, to say the least. According to Stanley, when he was meeting with Brando to pitch him the lead role, a Coven of witches and warlocks were casting spells and making blood sacrifices, to help ensure that Brando indeed took the lead role of Dr. Moreau.

However, whilst Director Stanley had the backing of witches and warlocks, he was losing the confidence of the studio to deliver his film. Frightened by some of the risqué scenes and story-boarding depicting Stanley’s out there vision for the film (including hardcore interspecies sex scenes), during pre-production, the Producer’s made the prophetic decision to write in a contingency within the budget to hire another Director, should Stanley lose control of his production, or should the studio lose control of Richard Stanley. It was almost as if the studio had manifested the impending disaster by doubting the young Stanley and undermining him to begin with.

The documentary, a mix of archival footage and interviews with cast and crew, also has a uniquely Australian feel to it, since the actual film …Dr. Moreau, was shot on location, on an island, near Cairns, just off the coast of Queensland. Many of the key crew and all of the extras were sourced locally, much to the chagrin of New Line Cinema, back in Hollywood.

And like many naive foreigners, the Producers of the film somehow assumed that the weather and shooting conditions in far north Queensland were all sunny skies and tropical paradises, typical post-card Australian stuff. Somehow, nobody accounted for the intense heat and humidity, followed by the monsoonal wet season, typical of the Far North Queensland region. Upon completion of set building, the production was hit by torrential rains and most of their sets were washed out into the Pacific Ocean.

The film was about to be hit by another disaster beyond their control; around the time Brando was due to arrive in Australia, his daughter, Cheyenne Brando, committed suicide. This delayed the shoot even further, with Brando remaining in the US to grieve and be with his family.

With barely any of their sets and the lead actor not even on the same continent, the young Stanley tried to push ahead and shoot what footage he could. But there was one more disaster awaiting Stanley... and that was cyclone Kilmer. Coming off Batman Forever, Kilmer was at his peak as a Hollywood film star and was none too keen on taking direction from the younger Stanley. The cast and crew interviews recall how Kilmer was re-writing scenes, disregarding dialogue in favour of improvisation and flat-out refusing to take direction. The documentary also suggests Kilmer only took the role for the chance to play opposite Brando. But Brando was nowhere to be seen.

By the time Brando did arrive in Cairns, Australia, Director Richard Stanley had been fired and replaced with veteran Director John Frankenheimer. This reportedly angered Brando, whom had developed a fondness for Stanley and shared his vision for the film.

New Director Frankenheimer had been sent to Australia with one brief; to salvage the Production and basically deliver something, anything, that resembled a film.

But not even the experienced Frankenheimer could wrangle mega-stars Brando and Kilmer.

Brando refused to do any dialogue scenes with Kilmer. Most of the quirkiness in the final cut of the film were creative decisions insisted by Brando; the white pancake make-up, the ice bucket on the head and the decision to take one of the freak extras, the worlds smallest man, Nelson De La Rosa, standing at a diminutive 2’4, and create the ‘mini-me’ character, which would later be parodied by Dr. Evil in Mike Myers' Austin Powers. 

* Marlon Brando as Dr. Moreau with his 'mini-me'.

Being a ‘creature-feature horror’, the film also engaged the services of the famous Stan Winston Studio make-up and effects artists. Extras interviewed in the doco recall how everyday they would spend hours in make up and be required on set, in stifling heat, to not even be used shooting any scenes that day, which would go on for months on end.

Meanwhile, original Director Richard Stanley had become an official 'missing person'! Devastated at being fired from his pet project, Stanley was paid out in full for his work and meant to be put on a plane back to L.A. However, Stanley never made it back to L.A. and was a reported missing, somewhere in Australia. In interviews, he reveals that he had settled with some hippies at a commune nearby the production, smoking copious amounts of weed as he came to terms with his firing.  

*Richard Stanley circa 2014.

(*MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!)

In what is the highlight of the documentary, Stanley reveals how he snuck back on location, disguised by a prosthetic mask and the sacked Director actually appears in scenes in the film as a ‘Dog Man’, half dog / half man, under the direction of his replacement, Frankenheimer.

As the weeks rolled into more than six months, the tension between Director Frankenheimer and his stars Brando and Kilmer continued and the budget continued to spiral out of control. Eventually, a wrap was called and they were able to fashion a film out of what would come to be known as a legendary, train wreck of a film shoot.  

The Island of Dr. Moreau was universally panned by critics but according to imdb.com the film somehow managed to turn of profit for New Line Cinema, thanks to a cult following in Japan.

As for the Lost Soul himself, Richard Stanley, he would never make another feature-film again. Sad for Stanley, tragic that such a promising talent was lost to the industry because of studio politics and circumstances beyond his control... but a BIG bonus for us, for if it wasn’t for the collective chaos and insanity behind Dr. Moreau, then we wouldn’t have this delightful little romp of a ‘making of / disaster’ documentary.

I sympathize with Richard Stanley; God knows that in my attempts to produce a feature film here in Australia, the trials, tribulations, shady characters and the retarded industry itself, presented as much, if not more drama, than the actual screenplay I was trying to produce… Maybe I would have been better off making a ‘making of’ doco, rather than an actual film?

*Images reproduced without permission.