Day One was not as bad as Stanley feared. It was worse. Much worse.
If the sea looked bad from the shore, then it was a downright shitstorm once you got out there. Even more disastrous, though, were the actors. There was zero chemistry. Kilmer, who had adamantly insisted he didn't want to be the star, still wanted to hog every scene. Stanley couldn't even turn to Brando, who wasn't due on set for weeks. At the end of the day he realised that everything they had filmed was total garbage.
Day Two was marginally better. Stanley actually managed to nail one scene where live animals were carried from a freighter to a launch.
Quote:
EXT. THE SOUTH PACIFIC - DAWN
There is a CLATTER of chains and a tortured, hydraulic WHINING followed by a scarcely human clamor of SHOUTS AND GRUNTS as a cage holding a frightened black leopard is hoisted skyward by a crude rig of chain and cable, spinning in the air above the rising sun.
CUT TO:
INT. THE CABIN - DAWN
Prendick wakes from an uneasy slumber and sits up in his bunk, rubbing his head, hearing HOARSE SHOUTING and PATTERING FEET overhead. As he gets to his feet there is a violent CREAKING SOUND and the freighter lists uneasily.
CUT TO:
EXT. THE DECK - DAWN
As Prendick comes up the ladder, the first thing he sees is the flushed sky and the rising sun over the broad back and red hair of the Captain who stands, arms upraised, while above him the black leopard spins in its cage.
DAVIS
I don't give a shit! Off load all of them. Now, we'll have a clean ship!
- ISLAND OF DR MOREAU, Stanley & Herr
By
Day Three things were actually edging towards the filing cabinet marked "Not A Disaster". Stanley got a sequence of Rob Morrow and the dogmen so, as the film was being shipped back daily to LA, at least the money men would be able to see that he could actually pull this off.
Quote:
Bubbles explode around him and he goes under for a moment before kicking his way back to the surface, gasping at the sudden shock of the water.
Above him he sees the steep side of the freighter, already starting to come about, its engines throbbing, Davis standing at the rail still shouting unintelligible abuse at him.
He turns and strikes out for the island, trying to distance himself from the ship's propellers.
The launch comes alongside him and the three brutish boatmen haul him awkwardly aboard where he crouches shivering, glancing around uneasily at his rescuers.
There is something strange about the features of the boatmen. They seem to be of some queer, brown-skinned race, their elfin faces peering out at him from beneath dirty turbans, lank black hair almost like horse hair framing their bright eyes.
As he meets their gaze, first one and then the other turn away from him in a deferential manner.
- ISLAND OF DR MOREAU, Stanley & Herr
Then Stanley took a look at the rushes. They were hopeless. Due to some kind of technical error no one understood, all you could see were faceless silhouettes. What went wrong? No one knew. Given enough time he would figure it out.
Stanley was still thinking about it on
Day Four when the message came. LA on the phone. Stanley suspected that it wasn't about him being voted New Line Director Of The Week. It wasn't. New Line had seen the rushes and they didn't like what they saw.
They had also heard rumours that Stanley was going nuts. Stanley had a million things to say. But nobody was listening. It didn't matter anymore. Because, once again, Richard Stanley was no longer the director of The Island of Dr Moreau.
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