Documentary

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau

The story of the insane scandals related to the remake of “Island of Dr. Moreau” —originally a novel by H. G. Wells—, which was brought to the big screen in 1996. How director Richard Stanley spent four years developing the project just to find an abrupt end to his work while leading actor Marlon Brando pulled the strings in the shadows. Now for the first time, the living key players recount what really happened and why it all went so spectacularly wrong.

Release Date : 2014-08-24

Language :English

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Severin Films

Production Country : United States of America

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Richard Stanley

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Fairuza Balk

Gender : Female

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Marco Hofschneider

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Kier-La Janisse

Gender : Female

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Michael Gingold

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Graham Humphreys

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Edward R. Pressman

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Robert Shaye

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Marlon Brando

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Val Kilmer

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : John Frankenheimer

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self

Original Name : Stephen Earnhart

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : H.G. Wells

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Joseph Conrad

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Henry Morton Stanley

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Charles Laughton

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Burt Lancaster

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : John DeLuca

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Roman Polanski

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Ruth Vitale

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : James Woods

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Barbara Steele

Gender : Female

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Jürgen Prochnow

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Cheyenne Brando

Gender : Male

Character Name : Self (archive footage)

Original Name : Ron Perlman

Gender : Male

Reviews

Wuchak

@Wuchak

2021-06-23

***Account of the troubled production is far more compelling than the movie*** The making of the 1996 version of "The Island of Dr. Moreau" was such a disaster that articles, books and documentaries have been made about it, like this 2014 documentary "Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau." Stanley championed the film, wrote the screenplay and was set to direct, but was fired after a few days of shooting after conflicts with Val Kilmer, who wasn't in the best of moods due to being served divorce papers while on set. Actually that wasn’t the main reason Stanley was fired. He was fine for small indie productions, but he was out of his league with a blockbuster like this. In his defense, the movie didn’t start as a blockbuster, but simply a few notches more swanky than Stanley’s previous two Indie flicks. Veteran filmmaker John Frankenheimer had to be brought in to save the production from being an utter loss. He got the job done, but his tyrannical approach didn’t help matters. The situation was so bad that Fairuza Balk (the cat-lady, Aissa) literally tried to escape the remote set in Cairns, Australia, but she was caught at the airport in the nick of time. Add to this constant rewrites and Brando's well-known eccentricities, not helped by the recent suicide of his daughter, Cheyenne, and you have a formula for cinematic chaos! The fact that a semi-coherent, somewhat entertaining movie was made from such a debacle is remarkable. But this documentary is far more interesting and amusing. It’s on par with similar docs, like “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse” (1991). Some notables of the cast & crew unfortunately weren’t interviewed (Kilmer, Ron Pearlman and David Thewlis), but more than enough were to accurately and entertainingly paint the picture of what went down. The film runs 1 hour, 37 minutes. GRADE: A