The Island of Dr Moreau | Richard Stanley's original vision

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

"A behind the scenes chronicle of how clash of vision, bad creative decisions, lack of interest and really bad weather plagued the disastrous production of the infamous The Island of Dr. Moreau"

[RetaliationStudios]

Those are some awesome pictures they painted! They really captured the essence of H.G. Wells' scariest work perfectly. It's all modernized, but that's okay. It's really nice to see an adaptation from our generation's viewpoint.

[Jim-Tuner]

I found and read one of the original scripts for the film. These are some observations on the differences:
1) The original script had Moreau as more of an action character. In particular, riding a horse and shooting guns. Things that Brando was obviously never going to be able to do at that point.
2) The whole dinner scene with the discussion of the "devil" is not in the original script at all.
3) Moreau is the one that shoots Lo-Mai at the trial.
4) Moreau dies in a different way. He creates a new dangerous hybrid that escapes the lab. He goes out to hunt it down. He kills it, but its body falls on him and pins him down. His animal men see him bleeding, the aura of him as a "god" disappears when they see him bleeding, and they kill him.
5) Moreau went to the island with a woman who was then killed by one of his experiments. Its strongly implied that his cat-daughter is somehow based on her or her DNA.
6) The religious symbolism is much stronger. But its basically a story of how a false supernatural "god" narrative is created around Moreau by his creations.
7) The "house of pain" from the original novel becomes an analogy for animal hell.
8) The whole sub-plot about Moreau keeping him on the island to kill him later is absent. There is an implication though that all the creatures are derived from Moreau's DNA and that fresh DNA on the island would be of use.
9) Moreau's plan appears have been to artifically evolve a better human out of animals. The natural evolutionary process was to be managed and accelerated through science. He was not looking at improving existing humans so much as creating improved humans (or humanoids) from animals.

Generally the changes to the script seemed because:
1) Brando's weight and physical condition making many scenes in the original script impossible
2) Brando rewriting just about every scene that involved him probably on set.
3) The toning down of the religious stuff
4) I think that it was generally impossible to get Val Kilmer and Brando to do any scenes together. Most of the scenes involving both were rewritten and the dinner scene was introduced to have one moment where they were together.

[johnnyfavorite]

The story behind the disastrous finished product is more interesting than the film itself.

[bloodrunsclear]

Now I wish they'd do this again...

[MrBlueSkyof]

Man, never thought New Line executives were such Rascals. I read that Fairuza Balk, who plays Aissa, stormed off set, ready to quit the film, until her agent said New Line threatened to ruin her career. They wouldn't have dared, just wanted her back on set. At least she's one of the saving graces of this disastrous film.

[AndreNitroX]

This is the kind of insanity I would have liked instead we got the kind of insanity that isn’t fun. I mean this director was literally driven insane to the point he went to go live in the jungle and dressed up as one of the beast men watching everyone finish the movie. It’s a miracle that he didn’t murder someone

[leonhunter]

WOW... THATS THE MOVIE I WANNA SEE!!!!

[kevinmyles]

Let's dream of a Richard Stanley's Island of Dr Moreau flick, the way it was meant to be..

[GetToDaChoppa-kr]

I think he modelled Moreau after himself.

[jdncoke]

such a shame, what a wasted opportunity, his version would surely have been better than what we got

[cinemaarts]

Does anyone know what happened to the footage Stanley was able to shoot before he was let go? It'd be fascinating to see and compare to the finished version.

[mista_fur]

I don't know if it'll be the same thumbnail for everyone, but it definitely looks like the last supper.

[pikppa]

Where can we read the original script?

[RSEFX]

Looks like something from a tormented mind going to pretty silly extremes. Wells didn't have a very well-developed sense about animals either. Still, I hate to see someone's passionately-felt project get so screwed over. (I almost said "pet project", but in this case, not sure is appropriate.)

[plasticweapon]

i liked the film, and thought it felt more like a stanley film than a frankenheimer film. *shrug*

[chrislondo]

I actually really want to see a documentary about Lynne Ramsay’s Lovely Bones though she left when the film was in development before Peter Jackson got involved.

[Phantasia_Workshop]

The film that got made is terrible and weird. But now that I've finally gotten some insight into Richard Stanley's attempted version, I'm glad it didn't get made. Ugh, what a mess

[benvids]

The use of Christian symbolism seams a completely idiotic misunderstanding of its meaning.

[mrj]

Wow that's fucked up ... I like it 🙂

[Sawrattan]

As long as they had Aissa / Fairuza Balk, I really didn't mind what they decided to go for.