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He probably shouldn't have antagonized John Frankenheimer

posted 3 years ago by Oblivioid (1515)
5 replies | jump to latest

There's a pretty large segment about the filming of The Island Of Dr. Moreau, and after the change of directors to John Frankenheimer, clearly Val Kilmer was not happy with this choice. He didn't like the director's pace of production, or his directing style at all. There's a scene where basically Frankenheimer is demanding Kilmer get his ass to work and rehearse, and asking him to turn off his personal video camera, and Kilmer refuses and begins arguing with him.

I'm not on Val's side here. I know he thinks he was in the right, but he wasn't. Maybe Frankenheimer wasn't the perfect choice for director, but Frankenheimer is no rookie to be bullied either. Show some respect for his career for pete's sake. He made his whole case against him because he thought he didn't want to listen to Marlon Brando's 'suggestions'. Brando was an absolute nutcase. Great actor, but a nutcase ok?

I'm not sure what Val Kilmer himself thought of putting this in the documentary. Does he think it makes him look better, or is it self reflective and showing us that he could be a dick on the set? I think it's the former, honestly, but I don't know Val Kilmer. I'm just not sure this sequence gets the point across he is trying to make, I could be mistaken though. What do you think?

[–] whynotwriteme (7762) 3 years ago

They never should have changed directors from Richard Stanley. Frankenheimer was not suited for the Dr. Moreau film at all. Stanley had a unique kind of vision that would have made this film an all-time classic. If that's what Kilmer was upset about, I can empathize 100%.

[–] thermo (40) 3 years ago

Agreed, New Line did a dirty trick trying to get Roman Polanski to direct behind Stanleys back. Maybe they sensed he was too green for such high budget production? Anyways, Frankenheimer was a seasoned pro who was hired to salvage the production for better or worse, Vals protest do not paint a very professional picture about his work ethic...

[–] TriumphReq (1857) 3 years ago

How was Marlon Brando a nutcase? He was playing a nutcase and had played one in other movies. Not sure that made him one.

[–] ShogunofYonkers (78051) 3 years ago

From what I've read that was a notoriously screwed up production and several big shot people misbehaved

Kilmer was allegedly a dick the whole time and Brando showed up 200 pounds overweight, lazy and didn't know his lines (which seems like his only work mode towards the end)

I like that this section was in the movie, it seemed like an admission on Kilmer's part that he could be a difficult jerk to deal with sometimes

[–] ebhaynz (3732) 3 years ago

Kilmer thought he could get away with his crap after he got Stanley fired. Frankenheimer came in to be the "fixer" and he had full authority to do what was necessary to complete the film. Kilmer didn't think this whole thing through..still, he only went from A list down to B list..until Red Planet..then C list.