Gregory’s documentary kicks off by setting the scene and giving the story some context. Back in the early 1990s, Richard Stanley was blazing a trail for low-budget genre fare in the UK, his 1990 effort Hardware a hugely entertaining Terminator knock-off, and its follow-up Dust Devil a visually-sumptuous sci-fi western.
The stage was set for the director to enter the big-leagues, and he planned to do so via an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau. The 1896 novella told the tale of a physiologist who spends his days splicing humans and animals together, and had already hit the screen on multiple occasions. But inspired by the moral and philosophical questions that the story raised, Stanley was convinced that the definitive Moreau movie was yet to be made, and so spent years working on a script.
New Line Cinema was impressed with what he produced, as well as the astonishing concept art created for the movie by poster legend Graham Humphrey (see below for a video of his work), and soon enough the casting process was underway. But that’s when the problems began.Stanley initially wanted Das Boot star Jurgen Prochnow as his Moreau, but when ‘world’s greatest actor’ Marlon Brando expressed an interest in playing the part, the writer-director jumped at the chance, the pair talking at length about the similarities between Moreau and Colonel Kurtz, the character that Brando played in Apocalypse Now.
Bruce Willis was also set to star before pulling out and being replaced by Val Kilmer in what Stanley believes to be his biggest strategic mistake. And when you hear the many Kilmer stories featured in the film, you can see why, the star coming across as a nasty, arrogant bully.
But coming off the back of Batman Forever, Kilmer was at the height of his powers, so could get away with demanding 40 fewer shooting days and burning the sideburns of crew-members with a lit cigarette.
The size of the production – which by now was up-and-running in a remote part of Australia – combined with the ego of its two stars, was all too much for Stanley, and he was swiftly and unceremoniously dumped mere days into principal photography, with Manchurian Candidate helmer John Frankenheimer taking over the reins.But the insanity didn’t stop there, with Brando also doing his best to derail proceedings; failing to read the script and learn his lines, insisting on wearing white make-up on his face, and in one scene acting under an ice bucket for no apparent reason.
Indeed a kind of insanity quickly seemed to envelope the entire production, with witchcraft playing its part, the cast and crew – which now included a mass of circus performers – filling their free time with sex and drugs, and Frankenheimer finding it impossible to control his actors, at one stage raging, “Even if I was making the Val Kilmer Story, I wouldn’t cast him.”
And so the war stories come thick and fast, although it's somewhat disappointing that there isn't quite enough behind-the-scenes footage or stills to support them or bring them to life. But studio head Robert Shaye, producers Ed Pressman and Tim Zimmerman, and actors Faruzia Balk, Marco Hofschneider, Fiona Mahl and Rob Morrow – whose role was eventually played by David Thewlis – tell tales that are as shocking as they are hilarious.
Unfortunately, as many of the main players don’t appear in the documentary, Lost Soul has a gaping hole at its centre. Brando, Frankenheimer and ‘world’s smallest man’ Nelson de la Rosa – about whom some of the film’s most hilarious stories are told – are no longer with us. But Thewlis and Kilmer turned down the opportunity to have their say, though in the case of the latter that’s probably understandable.That said, the film may well have been just as entertaining if it simply featured the enigmatic Richard Stanley telling his own story, such is the man’s charm and charisma. Two decades on any bitterness has clearly subsided, and what we’re left with is a master raconteur recounting the events that pretty much destroyed his career, and trying to make sense of it all.
And what of the legend of Richard Stanley sneaking back onto the set of his former film? Well we won’t spoil that story here, but sufficed to say there’s a huge amount of truth in the rumour – an astonishing tale in this wonderful documentary about the mind-boggling making of a terrible film.