Lost Soul - The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU

Presented as a selection of this year's PanicFest at Screenland Armour, Nortth KC.

If you've been a genre fan for the past, oh say, 25 years or so, then you have probably seen or at least have heard of the 90's version of THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU as being 'the worst movie ever made.

It makes a nice pull quote, but it's horseshit... anyone who actually believes that obviously hasn't seen very many movies in their lifetime. It is nowhere near that - it's actually a pretty decent time-waster, on its own terms. It is NOT among the greatest films ever made, and certainly not among John Frankenheimer's best work, but I'd watch it over his REINDEER GAMES anytime. At times, MOREAU is an entertaining, muddled batshit mess, but one guesses that it wasn't intended to be.

Even more entertaining were the stories behind the production of the film - originally spearheaded by Richard Stanley (who wrote and directed HARDWARE and DUST DEVIL and was gaining a reputation as a genre wunderkind), MOREAU was to be his first Hollywood studio backed film with a decent budget and box-office draw cast... it ended with Stanley being fired two days into shooting and replaced, one of the intended stars (Rob Morrow) leaving the production and lots and lots of weird stories circulating about what actually happened.

LOST SOUL, directed by David Gregory (Severin Films), is an attempt to set the record straight about MOREAU, to give a glimpse at what Stanley originally envisioned and to present what actually happened, as well as can be established from all of the guilty parties who consented to be interviewed. It's a fascinating 'unmaking-of' documentary that's also pretty illuminating on the age-old conflict of art vs. business.

While it is a good accounting of the production - one highlight is Rob Morrow on the record, which I believe is the first time that he's spoken about the film in any setting, and representing New Line's viewpoint is Bob Shaye (!), line producer Tim Zimmerman and production designer Graham Walker - it isn't by any means the whole story; noticeably absent from the doc is any input from David Thewlis, Ron Perlman or Val Kilmer (understandably since Kilmer apparently behaved very badly, by most accounts), and Stanley doesn't completely come completely clean about his state of mind at the time, although considering the circumstances, he was probably just barely keeping the project together.

What is apparent after weighing all the information presented is that as soon as Brando came on board and the budget expanded, the studio was looking for any excuse to remove Stanley from the film (Roman Polanski was courted for directing  duties as soon as Brando signed on, one of the little known tidbits revealed), mainly since he wasn't a known quantity in Hollywood, and had no champion on the production with any power to help support his vision. There was already pressure to 'smooth down' some of the rougher portions of Stanley's script and chances are even if circumstances had allowed him to remain as director, he would've had to make some hard compromises. And yes, the story of Stanley coming back to the set as an extra is definitely confirmed.

LOST SOUL has been on the festival circuit and will be released on DVD/Blu-Ray by Severin Films later in the year; it goes into limited theatrical release in certain cities starting on February 7, with both Gregory and Stanley doing Q&A in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, AZ.

In another example of No One Learns Anything, Leonardo DeCaprio is producing a version of MOREAU - time will tell if  it actually happens or not.

Enthusiam Waned and Waxed

Back again...

Killed a lot of time over the past year being involved with programming for one of the area film festivals, which in turn killed a lot of my enthusiasm for just about anything related to film and Kansas City. So a lot of the spring and summer was hiatus time, attempting to rebuild my enthusiasm again. Number One Lesson learned - never get involved in programming unless you have complete control or at least 2 other people on the same wavelength as you; it saves a lot of stress and heartache in the end.

I've come to the point where it's immaterial to even rant against the lameness of your local film festival (exempted from this is the Free State Festival in Lawrence, which started as just a film festival and expanded this year to include other disciplines, to great success); when you have at your fingertips the ability to do your own living room festival without concerns as to attendance and cost, DIY.

Recent viewings... picked up the Scream Factory Blu-Ray release of Brian DePalma's PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, which finally gets its proper due on a U.S. disc, and highly recommended if you have a Blu-ray player. This 2-disc release (BR and DVD) has the movie in an excellent transfer along with 2 commentary tracks (Cast members Jessica Harper, Gerrit Graham and 'Juicy Fruits' band members on one track and Production Designer Jack Fisk on the other), interviews with DePalma and Paul Williams; and the DVD is packed with more supplements including a documentary about the making of the film, an interview with Guillermo delToro interviewing Paul Williams, and more.

 The big news in home video for the summer was the release of TWIN PEAKS on Blu-Ray. Titled "The Entire Mystery", the set puts everything that is Twin Peaks into one package, one-upping the 'Gold Box' DVD release of a few years ago by also including TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME, and the coup de gras, over 90 mins. of deleted scenes from FWWM, "The Missing Pieces".

  

This is a magnificent effort, as you can see in the photo below, in terms of packaging...

 

Also kudos to the technical specs - the transfers and sound are A1... it's probably not going to look or sound any better than this release. There were postings of buyers encountering some sync issues, but I didn't notice any such issues in my viewing.
If you want to upgrade to Blu, it's certainly worth the effort -- I have the original DVDs and not in so much of a hurry to dump 'em, but I will get The Entire Mystery set at some point. If you're one of the fanatics who've been clamoring for the missing scenes from FWWM, this is the only way to get 'em!

As for the show itself; it held up very well when stacked up against its current offshoots. In retrospect, it probably would have been better for the show to have done less episodes for seasons (like what USA and TNT networks do for their programming nowadays) - there's a slog of 3-4 episodes in the middle of Season 2 that may try one's patience, but most all is forgiven by the last episode.

There's always been some corn in the humor of Lynch, and TWIN PEAKS when it works, adroitly balances the light and dark elements. In the second year, it seems that characters and situations from the other Lynch/Frost show, ON THE AIR have wandered over for a visit, and it throws that balance way off. Also, I find that Joan Chen's character is really unnecessary to the goings on.

Still, it was pretty good to revisit. There are some Easter eggs hidden on the first and last discs, but nothing earthshaking.

  

 I'm a fan of the show MEDIUM, which is pretty much forgotten about now. At the time, it was a good mixture of everyday family life of a housewife whose 'gift' allows her to help solve crimes. It wasn't genre like GHOST WHISPERER - it had hints and whispers of genre in visualizing Patricia Arquette's gift, and at times, did get pretty horrific. It lasted 7 years, so the creators obviously did something right.

A few years earlier, the creator of MEDIUM - Glen Gordon Caron, who also created MOONLIGHTING - brought another show to broadcast, which also mixed family life with the fantastic, although it was much more a genre show than MEDIUM was. Its premise - an everyday family man who is accidentally killed and whose brain is utilized in a government created body, which is younger, stronger, faster, et.al. - was probably a bit ahead of its time; years later came the superhero shows and movies. Its cast was a mixture of people on their way up and character favorites (Eric Close, Dennis Haysburt, Margaret Colin, Gerrit Graham, Heather Matrarozzo and Chad Lowe & John Goodman in recurring guest roles).

It got critical notice and a cult following, and was cancelled after one season by CBS, for essentially being too expensive to shoot and not successful enough to justify the cost. For 15 years, fans of the show had to contend with dodgy dubs taped from Sci-Fi Channel broadcasts to get their fix - finally, CBS/Paramount mans up and issues the entire series on DVD, and includes two tasty extras - a 4 part documentary on the making of the show and a 'writers table' of 3 of the show's writers talking about developing the show, and what would've happened had they got the go ahead for another season.

If you're a fan of superhero/comic-book situations, you'll probably enjoy this, especially if you're looking for variations on the formula. One of the trademarks of Caron's shows is the ability to subvert the expectations of what will happen and one of the subtle joys of the show is the focus on the smaller conflicts, which are just as important, if not more, than the Big Crisis that is faced in the episodes.

In between those, I also sandwiched in all five seasons of COMMUNITY, mainly because the opportunity to watch them all came up; and although I occasionally watched the show during broadcast, I didn't have a sense what it was about - I knew more about the behind-the-scenes goings on than anything about the actual show.

If you haven't seen it - get the season sets and START WATCHING!!

Enthusiasm now stoked, I soldier on, figuring what else to do... in between writing reviews for the film site 366 Weird Movies, some of that subject may carry over to here. I'm preparing a series on the films of Andrzej Zulawski, and will do a look into the films of local filmmaker Kevin Willmott probably after the New Year.

In Which We Do Some Coastal Log-Rolling, And Make More Promises That We Probably Won't Keep...



First things first, I wanna remind those of you in the L.A. and NYC areas that there are several films screening that were shot here in the Midwest. Those of you in the NYC area can attend the Hoboken International Film Festival, which kicks off this weekend - THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN screens on Saturday, June 5th, if you'd like to see it on the big screen (instead of, say, on your t.v. via Starz VOD; or on your computer screen via Netflix streaming).

THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN




Monday, June 7th is the date for THE BATTLE FOR BUNKER HILL, Kevin Willmott's new film (though, actually it was shot before INDIAN). It previously screened at the Atlanta Film Festival in April - here's a podcast featuring an interview with Kevin about the film, and Dan Hoyt's review on the Helium website.

THE BATTLE FOR BUNKER HILL



Those in the L.A. area planning on attending the Dances With Films festival may want to reserve some tickets for the screening of LAST BREATH on Tuesday, June 8; Ty Jones' thriller/drama that's starting to hit the festival circuit after winning the Audience Favorite award at the Omaha Film Festival.


I slacked on the blog a bit mainly due to so many other things; mainly looking for work... paying work. I've also been working on a couple of feature scripts and other things, but those are ventures that may potentially pay off Some Bright Day - Way.... WAY Off In The Future, where things can look pretty bright or dark, depending on how good the coffee is in the morning. In The Right Now, it's pretty fucking Hard -- but then, it usually has been.

I've also been watching a wide variety of films at home, since it's way cheaper than going out and the selection is much better than what's in the theaters. So, I turn to what the unemployed and obnoxiously vocal do in Tough Times -- blog about movies. Yes, I know -- how original. You're lucky that it's not about music... now that I've reached the plateau of Bitter Old Man, I no longer recognize what or who the Hell is playing in the clubs that the kids are listening to.

It's pretty fun no longer trying to be Cool...

So for the few of you following my rantings (THANK YOU every last one of you!), I should repay your kindness by providing more content a bit more often -- Facebook has largely been the recipient of the quick hit & run snark, illustrated by link - maybe a little of that will still get here, but I have to try harder - especially when I demand it from others.

Coming in April...

Screenings! An excuse to get out of the house and see something that was intended for people over the age of 14!! Granted, that may not be incentive for most people, but I'm sure there's at least a few of you still around out there...



Starting this Friday, April 2, THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN (award-winning western drama directed by Kevin Willmott) will have public screenings at Screenland Armour Theater in North KC beginning Friday, April 2 and running through Thursday April 8th. Kevin Willmott is scheduled for a Q&A after the first screening Friday, April 2. After this, it'll go into blackout, prior to its debut on Starz, so this will be your last chance to see it on the big screen for awhile.



April also brings the Kansas City FilmFest (merging of the KC Filmmakers Jubilee and the Kansas City Film Society Film Festival) - this is the second year under the FilmFest name, and it looks to be a good one. Among those in attendance is director/actor L. Q. Jones, who will be screening the classic A BOY AND HIS DOG as a special presentation.

Very appropriate since KC artist Richard Corben did a graphic adaptation of the Harlan Ellison story; and the latter part of the film is set in an odd environment called 'Topeka'...

Making its premiere is San Francisco filmmaker Chris Brown's new feature, FANNIE, ANNIE & DANNY -- I worked on Chris' first feature film, DAUGHTERS some years ago - and attend some of the seminars, parties, after-parties, etc.




A little further away - Atlanta, GA to be exact - BUNKER HILL (now with 'The Battle For' appended to the title) will screen at the Atlanta Film Festival in mid-April. BUNKER will be playing more dates on the festival circuit this year, and I'll pass 'em along as soon as I hear about them. It recently screened at my old, abandoned college stomping grounds SIU-C, at their annual Big Muddy Film Festival.

SUSPENSION - "Thumbs up"




I went to last night's (Monday) screening of SUSPENSION... and am very happy to report that it was VERY GOOD. Of course, having been a part of the crew, my judgment may be somewhat suspect and biased - you do love your children, even though some of them are highly flawed, or just totally fucked up. Happily, such is not the case here. It turned out to be a solid piece of work -- SUSPENSION held the audience's interest, and I hope that many others will enjoy it as much as I did... and Chris & Jeremy at ThroughAGlass Productions (who did excellent work).
Big kudos to Ethan and Alec, Aris, Scott and Annie, and everyone else involved.

Alec and Ethan will be hitting the festivals for most of the year, and they did drop the news that it should be out on DVD later in the year... more news on that as soon as I hear about it.

SUSPENSION will be appearing at the Sedona International Film Festival in Arizona with the directors in attendance and doing Q & A.

Tuesday, Feb. 26th - 7:00 pm (reception to follow)
Thursday, Feb. 28th - 1:15 pm

http://www.sedonafilmfestival.com/

The following week, SUSPENSION will also appear at the Cinequest
International Film Festival in San Jose, California.

Friday, March 7th - 9:30 pm
Saturday, March 8th - 9:30 pm
Sunday, March 9th - 10:30 am

http://www.cinequest.org/index.php

Another nice surprise was finding out that Annie Tesdesco, the lead actress, was seen by millions this past Sunday in a Super Bowl commercial for CareerBuilder.com: