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Great listen as always. One thing: THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU was not a Richard Stanley film. That is, it was supposed to be, but due to various reasons he was fired (the main one being Val Kilmer at the height of his out-of-control ego days). John Frankenheimer took over the directing duties, sadly the project got further out of control, the script was butchered by rewrites, and the film became the turkey it is.

The original script was a serious, faithful, poetic adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel, so it's another of those "Oh, crap, it could have been great" projects...

(Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 at 12:58 PM)

Yes, correct, Erik.
I did actually know that and I realized in my head right after I said it incorrectly, but thank you for the correction. :)

Another "Oh crap, it could have been great" projects, like your opinion of Day Of The Dead? ;)

I hope some day that Lee and Michael convince you to be a guest host.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 at 1:33 PM)

Dan: I'm here to nitpick, erm, I mean offer up clarifying tidbits. :) Guest host... appreciate that, maybe some day.
As for Romero's film, I wouldn't say it's comparable to what DR. MOREAU ended up becoming -- at all. I simply feel it's the lesser of the "first three" DEAD films, and would have loved to see Romero shoot the version he wanted. What do I know, I liked DIARY, seem to be alone on that one.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 at 2:37 PM)

Re: Erik
You're definitely alone on liking DIARY. An embarrassingly awful film for Romero. I've not even mustered the interest to see SURVIVAL following that shit-pie.

Thanks for the feedback and for the key clarification regarding Richard Stanley's involvement with THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. Idiotically, I too realised that (after the recording though) as I recall Stanley being let back on the set as an extra or something along those lines.

Re: Dan and Erik
Both of you fine film lovin' gents are welcome aboard HMS Movie Matters any time you fancy taking a jaunt :D

(Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 at 3:01 PM)

I don't think it was just Val Kilmer who caused problems for Moreau, John Frankenheimer and Marlon Brando also wanted changes, the studio New Line wanted changes, Kilmer was going through a divorce, Brando's daughter had committed suicide, what makes me laugh is that after Kilmer shot his last scene the director shouted, "Cut, now get that bastard off my set" - I hope that is true and not just an urban myth.

You also have to remember we were now into the mid nineties, we were now well into the PG-13 watered down era of filmmaking, studio's looking to maximise profits were putting out films using that rating instead of the more suitable R rating. ( for the content )

Talking about Richard Stanley, i have the limited edition 5 disc DVD of Dust Devil, i'd love a great blu ray version of that set.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 at 3:05 PM)

I just gotta add, nope he isn't alone in liking Diary of the Dead, i thought it had some effective moments, better than Land Of The Dead, i also think Day Of The Dead is great it's my my favourite of the original trilogy.

Since we are discussing George i gotta also say i'd love The Dark Half on blu ray, a very effective film, loved it when i first saw it.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 at 3:09 PM)

Re: FoxyMulder

Fair play fella regarding DIARY (Erik, you should start a movement to revive this maligned zombie flick. lol!). Each to their own naturally. I recall liking the opening scare and then all too soon the dumb vacuous characters and misjudged modern cultural references begun to grate on me.

Ironically, I actually enjoyed LAND and like many love NIGHT, DAWN and DAY although the latter does strike me as a film that could have been grander in some respects.

Not seen THE DARK HALF to my shame.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 at 3:19 PM)

Count Fosco: Many thanks, I'll start working with a dialect coach asap for the prep. :D Re: THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, Stanley sneaked back onto the set as one of the creatures (don't think anyone knew it was him), guess he is another masochist.

FoxyMulder: Kilmer was the person most directly responsible for getting Stanley fired, after that the studio/Brando/Frankenheimer did their thing. And no, that is not a myth, Frankenheimer hated Kilmer. Some famous 'moments':

- - -

One evening, Kilmer turned to the director and asked, "You know what I think?" To which Frankenheimer yelled back, "I don't give a f---. Now get off my set."

At the end of Val's final scene, the exasperated director shouted: "Cut... now get the bastard out of my sight."

Frankenheimer kicked off the film's unrivaled bad publicity campaign by later declaring, "I don't like Val Kilmer, I don't like his work ethic, and I don't want to be associated with him ever again."

- - -

I have that DUST DEVIL set. We can start a fan club re: DIARY. I know a few other people who like it.

Count Fosco again: DAY, like DR. MOREAU, has a long making-of story. Vincent who posts here now and again could probably write a small essay on what happened to DAY. I'll limit it to one quote: "DAY OF THE DEAD, the third of the Dead Trilogy, was intended to be an epic and was going to be the "gone with the wind" of zombie movies. However, the film company drastically reduced the amount of money they were willing to invest in the film. This was because George Romero was just not willing to compromise the films special effects by cutting back on the gore and violence so it would receive the lower rating which the film company wanted it to. He therefore cut back on the script and made a smaller and more economical film."
From homepageofthedead.com, where you can read the original script.

Sorry for derailing the topics a bit (THE OMEN is great fun... uh... and that's about all I have to say), I figure banter is better than crickets, though!

(Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 at 4:20 PM)

I think it ended up a better film by making those compromises, indeed look at Land Of The Dead, it looks like they tried for a more grand scale epic approach, the CGI blood bothers me though, i liked parts of it but disliked other parts of it, Day Of The Dead is really good though.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 at 8:37 PM)

I'd give the script a read to see if you truly find the final film better. If you don't want to read it, here's some info and a summary courtesy of Vincent Pereira (public posts, just for the record). Massive spoilers:

"In the book THE ZOMBIES THAT ATE PITTSBURG, Romero mentions that the first rough cut of DAY ran 126-minutes. The final print ran about 100-minutes. Losing twenty-six minutes from first rough-cut to final print really isn't that big a deal, and, since the filmed DAY really consisted of a last-minute re-write of the script to satisfy his contract (Romero simply HAD to make the film at that time, even though it wasn't the version he wanted to make), I really can't imagine him writing a particularly long script, or having much in the way of good material to cut out. Hell, the release print of DAY could stand to lose another ten minutes in my book. I mean, I like the film and all, but the first hour is interminable."

"Essentially, [Romero's preferred original DAY script] is a much more epic and expanded version of the film that came to be. The opening is pretty much the same, but it's not a group of military folk who are going from city-to-city looking for survivors, but rather a group of I guess you'd say survivalists. The group of survivalists eventually make their way to an island, where there are two factions of survivors -- the military and scientists who have set up shop in a huge complex underground, and a rag-tag group of "civilian" survivors on the surface. Also, there is not just one "trained" zombie, but a whole friggin' army platoon of them. The leader of the military group is an almost-Caligula like figure who has taken to indulging his senses, and like the movie that was made but on a much larger scale, eventually everything breaks down and all hell breaks loose, and the survivalists along with a few of the more sane military/scientists flee the island...

BUT, as they are fleeing, they come across the body of one of the survivalists who had died when they first got to the island. It's now been many days or perhaps even weeks, and he hasn't come back to life. As they flee, one of their group gets bitten by a zombie, and they eventually make their way to another deserted island. They bury their comrade who has now died, and the script ends with them sitting watch over his shallow grave with the dead man not having come back to life. Essentially, at the end of the unproduced DAY OF THE DEAD, the zombie plague has "ended" -- there are still hordes of the living dead, but people who die anew cease to return to "life". I loved that ending -- there was no explanation of what caused the plague, and eventually, it just kind of ends and people stop coming back."

(Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2012 at 9:01 PM)