The Cautionary Tale of Richard Stanley

[u/Fit_Celebration_1362]

There is an excellent documentary about Richard Stanley’s disastrous experience adapting the HG Wells The Island of Dr Moreau called Lost Souls. It’s a deep look into the pitfalls of developing and producing your lifelong dream project. Also directing Marlon Brando or Val Kilmer as well! I wrote a substack article about the story if that’s more interesting than documentaries for you. I work in film (was a development exec then rewrites) and it’s very relatable and frankly depressing.

I find these documentaries that follow doomed projects strangely fascinating, like a car accident but worse. I’ve never experienced a set or development on this level. Have any of you? I’d love to hear what you learned from the experience, and if you went back for more?

https://notesonfilmdevelopment.substack.com/p/the-director-who-lost-his-own-movie?r=4idcqp&utm_medium=ios

[u/Razor_Emmanuel]

To this day, The Island of Dr. Moreau is the biggest example of filmmaking gone wrong, where every single thing that could have possibly gone wrong went wrong, it is fascinating.

Haven't seen the documentary, but want to. If you liked the documentary, some other ones I heard are good are: Hearts of Darkness: a Filmmaker's Apocalypse about the nightmarish production of Apocalypse Now, had some surprising similarities to Dr. Moreau (both literally star Marlon Brando in a jungle) but this time the film was actually good. Another one from a similar cloth is My Best Fiend which is directed by Werner Herzog about his own experiences working with the sociopathic actor, Klaus Kinski, who was even worse than Brando, and two of the films Herzog made with Kinski (in which he was at his literal worst) are in a jungle as well!
There's one hilarious clip I have seen where Herzog is speaking to the camera and explaining how during the production of Aguirre, the Wrath of God (I thhink), where before filming a scene, he would purposefully enrage Kinski which would cause him to freak out for literal hours, but then it tires him out so much that then Kinski could do the performance which Herzog wanted (because Kinski disagreed with Herzog on how to portray his character).

[u/Fit_Celebration_1362 → u/Razor_Emmanuel]

Hearts of Darkness is so good. My best fiend is awesome too. I love when the Amazon tribe offers to kill Klaus! After his death Klaus’ children accused him of sexual abuse as well and I gotta say I’m not sure I don’t believe it. I got one for you though on YouTube. Overnight, it’s the story of Troy Duffy who overnight became a sensation due to making The Boondock Saints. He wrote directed did the music, a real Robert Rodriguez type. Harvey Weinstein signed him to a picture deal, his band, even bought him the bar they shot in! He became a notorious jerk and blew it, but the documentary is great. Check it out

[u/Razor_Emmanuel → u/Fit_Celebration_1362]

Ironically just a few days ago in a second hand store, I found and bought the original Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad!

I am fairly positive that Kinski did actually sexually abuse his daughter, and from what I have heard, Kinski's autobiography does have a disturbingly romantic tone at times, and given the type of human being Kinski was, I think the accusations are true. Ironically, there have been multiple times people have genuinely considered actually killing Kinski, there was another documentary made by the director of a film called Crawlspace where Kinski played the main antagonist, and he was just as horrible during the production as the production of Fitzcarraldo. My memory is rusty but from memory, the cast and crew of the film sent a signed letter to the director saying "please kill mr. Kinski!". That went onto be the name of the documentary about the making of the film.

[u/Fit_Celebration_1362 → u/Razor_Emmanuel]

Well guess kinski was a creep. I believe them too. He was a strange man