How Val Kilmer and the bitter quarrel of Marlon Brando delayed a whole film

The "difficult" actors clashed on the set of Dr Moreau Island.


Val kilmer was one of The biggest cinema stars of the 80s And the 90s, rising to glory on the wings of its charisma and its appearance. But in the early 2000s, his career had stalled. A large part of this seemed apparently comes down to its reputation for being difficult to work - and no film has made the mill work operate H.G. Wells adaptation Dr Moreau Island , who lost a director at the start of the production and was delayed due to the Diva type behavior of her co-stars, kilmer and Marlon Brando . Read the rest to find out more about the actors' quarrel and how it ended the production.

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Kilmer and Brando both had a reputation for causing problems on the set.

Marlon Brando in 1996
Sgranitz / Wireimage

Even before Word led during the production of Dr Moreau Island , Kilmer was notorious for Bad behavior on the set . As indicated by Weekly entertainment In 1996, shortly after being confirmed that Kilmer would not return to the role of Bruce Wayne for the rest of Batman forever "[J] UST while the $ 6 million pay check per kilmer came to reflect its weight, its reputation for being difficult has climbed. Box Office Payback." Batman forever director Joel Schumacher Even called The Star "finallyish and impossible", according to the magazine.

Brando, too, had the reputation of being difficult. Well beyond his days of glory as an Oscar Etoile On the seafront And The Godfather , the actor legend had become better known for his bizarre behavior both on and offbeat than his performance. The actor was criticized for having done anti -Semitic comments on cnn Larry King Vive in 1996 and had made the headlines to compete with directors, especially Francis Ford Coppola (Just one of several quarrels that the actor has committed on the set of Apocalypse now ).

Putting these two personalities notoriously difficult in the same film seemed to be a mature recipe for a disaster, especially considering Dr Moreau Island was in rough form from the start.

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The film was disturbed from the start.

Val Kilmer in The Island of Dr. Moreau
New cinema

With a budget of $ 40 million, two brand stars and proven source equipment, Dr Moreau Island seemed ready for success, but from the first days of filming, production was a waste.

According to EW , original director, Richard Stanley , which had developed the project for four years (and even, in its own story, initiate the services of a demonstration To make a ritual to ensure that Brando would connect), agreed at the last moment to let kilries exchanges roles in order to take a smaller room. Whatever his honored request, the actor would have started causing problems at the start of filming, emphasizing strange wardrobe choices, saying written lines for other characters and presenting himself late on the shooting the second day.

The actor who replaced kilrms in his original part, ROB MORROW , ended up leaving the film for a few days in production (the character was refused with David Thewlis ) - And Stanley did not behave better. He managed only three days of shooting before the studio, not impressed by the images that had been shot, sent him back, calling on the veteran director John Frankenheimer ( The Manourien candidate ) short term.

(For his part, Stanley thinks that Kilmer intentionally sabotaged him: "He would refuse to repeat," he said to EW. "He is intelligent, because then we were just going to shoot him, and when you shoot him, his rushes, and that comes back to the business.")

Frankenheimer also clashed with Kilmer - who has also not obtained any respect for Brando. By EW , "One evening, Kilmer turned to the director and asked:" Do you know what I think? "To which Frankenheimer replied:" I do not give an [explanive]. Go down from my set. ""

Brando, meanwhile, insisted that his trailer was removed from kilmer and bad mouth to his face, telling him, according to an anonymous member of the production team, "your problem is that you confuse your talent with the size of your pay check. "

According to this same anonymous crew member, production lost 12 days, during which no shooting took place at all - in the inability of the actors to get along.

Kilmer and Brando were each under tension and presented a bizarre behavior on the set.

Val Kilmer in 1997
Rebecca Naden - Images PA / PA Images via Getty Images

The buffoonery on the set of Brando and Kilmer are however much further than that. Brando insisted on bizarre modifications to his character, playing the role while being covered with white face painting and, inexplicably, turning a scene with a metal bucket perched at the top of his head. He did not know his lines either and had to feed them by a earpiece - with humorous results, when he accidentally picked up the signal neighboring police radios.

Kilmer fought without mercy with Frankenheimer (even the video band their stormy arguments and later sharing some clips in the 2021 documentary Valve ) and even burned a member of the crew with a cigarette (an act which, according to him, was accidental).

The two actors were stress in their personal life at the time that could have contributed to their behavior. Kilmer was served with divorce papers on the set in the virgin islands, while Brando dealt with the Death of his daughter Cheyenne , deceased by suicide in April 1995, five years after his half-brother Christian, Brando's son, pleaded guilty to have shot his boyfriend.

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The film was a massive flop.

Val Kilmer in 2019
Amanda Edwards / Getty Images

To be fired Dr Moreau Island turned out to be a death death knell for the original director - Stanley did not reappear until 25 years later, when he published the documentary Lost soul: the condemned journey of the island of Richard Stanley of Dr Moreau , a column of his years of work on tortured production. AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB

Kilmer, who speaks with a vocal box after fighting throat cancer, also shared his side of the history of decades later in his autobiographical documentary film. To hear him say, his stubborn behavior was to give Dr Moreau Island His creative all.

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