Blessed, Life and Films of Val Kilmer

by William Hamilton

  Val described working with Marlin Brando on “The Mark and Brian Radio Show KLOS 95.5 – Los Angeles” “Oh yeah. First day on the set of The Island of Doctor Moreau he spoke eight languages. And not to impress anyone, just that the smallest man in the world spoke Spanish, so he spoke Spanish to him; and the French had just blown up an atom bomb in the Pacific so he is speaking Tahitian and French to family and authorities there, and he was singing songs in Yiddish; and, I mean, he is that character in a way that is capable of these incredible insights and folly and such a dynamic character.”

  “The director did one thing one day, a gesture he had never seen, and he repeated it every day. In the middle of a conversation he’d make this gesture and look over at me because I was the only person that saw it and he just start laughing. It didn’t matter what we were doing, you know, (Val imitates Brando) “why the hell would he do that,” you know, he was just so obsessed he can’t stop, he can not stop. You know, he’s a great scammer, actors are usually that, whether someone gets the joke or not, he’ll just mess with someone’s mind and play things around and so . . .”

  Brandon Judell, writer for Critics Inc./America Online says, “The most exiting characters (the ones played by Kilmer, Brando, and Baulk) are killed off too early, and what we’re left with is a Satan’s ‘Sesame Street.’”

  The film had a great opening weekend with $9,000,000, but quickly faded as word of mouth got around. The total gross for the film was a little over $27,000,000, very short of everyone’s expectations.

  It wasn’t one of Val’s favorites either, “Wonderful guy (Frankenheimer). Loved his stories. He was dedicated about his job, but he was very frank about why he was doing it: for the money and a chance to hang out with Brando, like the rest of us. But then he’d say, ‘Can you help me out here?’ ‘With what?’ ‘Well, Marlon doesn’t want to do this, so you do that.’ I said, ‘Well, no. I’ll do what’s in the script, but let’s sit down and improve it. Let’s not pretend this really isn’t as ridiculous as it seems to be.’”

  The director was quoted as saying in Premiere Magazine, “There are two things I will never do in my life, I will never climb Mount Everest, and I will never work with Val Kilmer again. There isn’t enough money in the world.” This was despite another quote attributed to him by Army Archerd, Variety Senior Columnist, “As for Kilmer, Frankenheimer says, ‘He is wonderful in the movie. He is a very talented actor.’ Frankenheimer said stories about Kilmer’s (mis)behavior are absolutely not true. Val denied them to me as well.”

  The media in the United States was hammering Val, but Val was in Africa for his next project, “The Ghost in the Darkness.” Val didn’t have a publicist at the time. Val said in his interview with Mr. David Giammarco, “I’ve never really had a publicist because I guess I naively thought my work would tell the story of who I am and that would be enough... but it wasn’t.”

  Now Val has his own website and says, “You’ll be able to know what I believe, because there’s no filter. And for people who have lied consistently about me, I will tell the truth and they can’t refute it because then you get into legal territory. A lie is a lie, and liars are liars, and I have never, ever, lied about my job.”

  The Ghost and the Darkness/Maneaters Of Tsavo

  1996

  William Goldman, the famous screenwriter, went to Africa in 1984, and was told the story of the Tsavo lions. He found the story intriguing, and related that is was one of only two outstanding true stories he had ever come across in over forty years of writing. He didn’t realize it at first, but the story had once been brought to the silver screen already as “The Bwana Devil (1952),” the first 3D film.

  It was 1989 before Goldman had a chance to pitch his film to Paramount executives in L.A.. He threw his back out, and had to pitch the idea flat on his back, but they still liked the story so much, they agreed to make the film.

  Goldman finished the screenplay in 1990, and Paramount realized this was going to be an expensive movie to produce, they needed a star to help insure they got their money back out of the picture. They weren’t sure if a celebrity would want to be in a movie where the lions would be the stars, but they decided to contact Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise and Kevin Costner. Kevin Costner was excited about the role, but Paramount executives had talked themselves into Tom Cruise as the star. Cruise wasn’t interested, Kevin got involved in another project, and this stalled the movie for five years.

  Michael Douglas was the executive producer and the character Remington (originally named Redbeard). Val Kilmer was the new star, although at one point he almost quit because one Paramount executive suggested he shouldn’t use an Irish accent. Val told them, “Oh, I didn’t know you were going to rewrite it, and no longer going to say, ‘Based on a true story,’ because an American at the turn of the century would certainly be different from an Irishman who’s come up through the British military to be colonel at 27.”

  Paramount wanted to produce the film in Kenya, near where the events took place, however the political situation wasn’t hospitable for movie making, and they chose to film in South Africa. The Songimvelo Game Reserve in Mpumalanga Province was chosen as a suitable match for the river. It took about two years of preliminary work before they were ready to begin shooting. Four hundred workers had to cope with rhino attacks while trying to build the set. Hundreds of tons of thorn bushes and grass had to be replanted in the area to replicate the Tsavo camp. An 1879 steam engine was transported piece by piece.

  Hopkins says, “It was amazing to see a working railway line go down. It's quite extraordinary to see an authentic mega-ton 1890's steam engine, which we borrowed from a Pretoria Railroad Museum, moving across the landscape, going downhill to a T-junction at a river with no bridge for it to cross.”

  When they originally scouted it was a very dry place, and one concern they had was to film the building of a bridge with an area that had almost no water. They didn’t have to worry very long.

  Val describes, “It started raining which it wasn’t supposed to be doing. Then it rained more than it ever rained in five years and then Africa washed away our bridge to get to work so I had to take rafts and walk across the river and then it washed the bridge out again and again. And then it threatened to wash away the whole movie set bridge. A lot of hardships with the weather changing.”

  Real Samburu warriors were used as extras. To this day, each warrior must kill a lion before becoming an adult member of the tribe. Val Kilmer says, “There’s a lot of power that you see in the faces of the people. There’s a lot of laughter too because movie sets are always a surreal experience but imagine never having seen a film and being an extra on this and we’ve got a bridge halfway built and we keep pretending to build it but we don’t really build it.”

  At first they were going to use animatronic lions for some shots. Hackenberger (the lion trainer) explains, “That was tricky. At one point, they brought in Stan Winston (“Jurassic Park) But it was a disaster. They spent a fortune and only one shot was used. You must remember that it is easier to create dinosaurs; no one has ever seen one, so we have no point of reference. With lions, it’s different, it doesn’t work.”

  “The animal coordinator who put this together initially was Hubert Welles. Hubert went and looked at probably four or five hundred lions worldwide and he picked the six best lions he thought could do the movie. He went to Moscow and looked at the Moscow Circus lions. He went everywhere and the two lions at Bowmanville, Bongo and Caesar - for what they do, which is contact work, safe work, also very athletic work - jumping, running, etc., they’re the best for that. And they’re gorgeous animals. They’re the finest working lions in the world.”

  “They’re safe. They’re easy. And that’s not to say anything against the French lions. For what they were - i.e., aggressive, over-the-top lions, they were great. But it was a real pain in the butt to shoot them because of the way they were. If they could use Bongo and Caesar, they did… we had specific lions to act ferocious so B
ongo and Caesar didn’t have to be ferocious,”

  Hackenberger says, “To take the lions to Africa was a very big deal… male lions demarcate their territory largely by roaring and so when we had six male lions all within a half a mile of each other, they all thought they were the owners. It made the more aggressive lions more aggressive and it made the less dominant lions more fearful… Bongo was fine but the other lion in the movie, Caesar - he was very subdued by the other males and it took almost around six weeks to bring him out of his shell.”

  “In terms of living arrangements, we also stayed on the game reserve. They had a game lodge in the reserve which was around five kilometers away. Otherwise, we would have had to stay at a resort that was around fifty kilometers away and we were just uncomfortable being that far from the lions. It’s a game lodge so...I mean...we were staying in tents but the tents had wooden floors... at the lodge, it was essentially all the lion trainers plus Val… Val’s a bit of a method actor, and as such, he wanted to immerse himself in the African experience... Val was very interested in Africa period and African lions are a big part of Africa… he had a very good friend who’s a South African, Bowen, who came and visited very regularly and Bowen was fascinated with the lions. Bowen is very much a bushman, very much so, and he just found it really neat to be able to get this close to a lion without being eaten.”

  Even with well-trained lions they had to take precautions, they put up electrified cattle fence to contain them. Hackenberger says, “He (Caesar) was working in a hot wire and he accidentally brushed it and it startled him and he went over the fence. And that day they were shooting probably three thousand extras for some of the big scenes and boy, it was like we were Moses and they were the Red Sea! They went for the hills.”

  When a lion attacked someone onscreen, the scene was shot at Constellation Stages in nearby Badplaas. A new piece of equipment was used called the Stealth Dolly that was able to replicate its motions for a second shoot. They filmed the lion first, and then matched the victim to the lion’s movement. Later they added touches like shadows cast by the lion and the dust kicked up by the victims’ feet as they ran. However, when you see a lion jump over Val that really is Val and Bongo together.

  “Everyone got sick. You have this tick bite fever. You get bit by ticks and you get this horrible little protozoan parasite… there were times we were working with a third of a crew. No one escaped it. The ticks live out in the high grass and that's where we were constantly filming.”

  “This was Bongo and Caesar’s first time in Africa and it was great,” Hackenberger relates, “We took them for long walks. We let them loose and let them chase zebras. They didn’t catch any. It was a lot of fun. It was a great experience. Any time you get on location - sure, there’s a lot of inconvenience and a lot of time and trouble but filming lions in Africa? It doesn’t get better.”

  Maneaters Of Tsavo

  This is a documentary about the true story that inspired the film. This documentary takes you to Tsavo National Park in Southern Kenya to search for the descendants of the maneaters and features interviews with Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer.

  Interesting facts:

  Val wanted to be addressed as John Patterson, even by mail

  Val asked for government permission to drive his Land Rover deeper into game reserve and set up a camp. (Wildlife officials refused.) Michael Games explains, “Val is not a social animal.”

  The Barred owl, boreal owl, and common nighthawk used as background noise are native to North America, not Africa.

  The movie won an Academy Award for best sound effect editing

  When Val is walking in London with his wife, the Pretoria Palace of Justice (the African landmark) can clearly be seen behind his wife’s shoulder

  The film took 12 years and $60 million dollars to develop

  Val says, “Lions don't crawl for nobody! ... Except their trainers!”

  Val had a bunch of publicity shots taken with Bongo, but they weren’t used

  Bongo and Caesar have done thirty to forty TV programs, movies and commercials, including “Animorphs” and “George of the Jungle” Hackenberger says, “When we don’t work him, (Bongo) he tends to get upset. He likes the attention, he really does.”

  Bongo died on October 11, 2001 of lung cancer

  Around five people were killed during the making of this movie. An extra drowned in the river and three people hit cattle while driving cars (no one was eaten by a lion).

  Nelson Mandela

  Val talks about Africa and meeting Nelson Mandela, “I was there immediately prior to the elections and immediately after. We filmed (‘The Ghost & The Darkness’) in Pretoria, simulating London, in the room where all those laws were passed, and you could feel it, just like feeling the lion’s roar at night. It’s an awful feeling. The racial tension that exists is much different than in the press, because it’s day-to-day living. The feeling is more of a community, of sharing the extraordinary challenges they’re facing as a nation.”

  “Somebody hooked me up with (Nelson Mandela), which was quite a thrill. He was interested in meeting me because I had made some donations on previous trips, but also because he knew that I was interested in a theater that John Kani, who played Samuel in “The Ghost and the Darkness” is directing. He’s not seeing people so much anymore, so it was a particular thrill. It’s a real privilege to be a celebrity, but I look at it with a sense of responsibility, because if I get to meet him and some righteous wildlife guy doesn’t, I’d better tell a real good story. He’s only got so many hours in the day.”

  Dead Girl

  Made in 1995

  Val made an obscure movie only released on video in Europe called “Dead Girl.” This movie has no scheduled release for the United States, and even Val hasn’t viewed it, although he says, “I haven’t seen it and I’m longing to,” In his interview with Movieline Magazine he cups his hands over his mouth and shouts, “Adam, where are you?” referring to writer-director Adams Coleman. The film’s absence of notoriety doesn’t bother Val much, “There are only three reasons to do a movie: the cast, the director, the role. Like I say, you live in a minute of screen time, but to prepare for the minute takes much more than a day. You’d better be excited about what those moments are, even if they’re the hardest moments. Or the smallest.”

  The Saint

  4/4/1997

  The Saint is not a new work at all, but the idea originated in a story entitled “Meet the Tiger” by British author Leslie Charteris. He soon dedicated his life to Simon Templar, and with the proceeds from his work he funded a hospital and youth center in London. Charteris has authored more than fifty novels about the Saint, plus countless short stories. For his work, the Crime Writer’s Association chose Charteris with the Diamond Dagger.

  In 1938 The Saint arrived at the movies, and RKO pictures produced a series of the films. In the ’60 Roger Moore brought the Saint to television, and the series was a hit around the world. With all of these books, movies and TV shows, you would think Simon Templar’s childhood and motivations would be well documented, but they weren’t.

  The director of the film, Phillip Noyce, who directed such hits as “Sliver,” “Clear and Present Danger,” and “Patior Games,” worked with screenwriters Jonathan Henleigh and Wesley Strick to create a background based on his stories and clues form his name. Simon is from the Biblical story in Acts 8:9-23 where Simon Magus tried to buy the Holly Spirit from Peter. Templar comes from the name of an ancient order of fighting monks from the Middle Ages who were politically attacked by the king of France and other forces in the church.

  Noyce chose the Academy Award nominated Elizabeth Shue for the role of Simon’s love interest. Shue was exited to play the part, “I don’t think I have ever done a film this big. Also the main reason for doing this movie was to work with Val.”

  Noyce knew who was right for the lead role, “We didn’t need just another action hero; we needed a real actor. Val Kilmer was one of the few wh
o had the true acting ability to play all the diverse characters that Simon Templar has to portray. Val has never been used this way – and I think people are going to be quite surprised with what he comes up with in this movie.”

  Noyce looked for actors who would be very realistic in Russia, where a large portion of the film takes place. Noyce says, “We wanted actors who would startle the audience with their freshness and reality. In Russia, we discovered truly gifted actors.”

  Rade Serbedzija plays the corrupt businessman, Ivan Tretiak, who is trying to take over Russia. He is a leading actor of the former Yugoslavia and has been nicknamed the Hamlet of his generation on the Yugoslavian stage. His award-winning career has included over forty films. His daughter Lucija plays a small role. Vallery Nikolaev who plays Ivan’s son Iiya, is also a Julliard student. His extensive work in TV and films in Russia is now being extended internationally.

  “The Saint” was filmed on location in Moscow and England, and at Pinewood Studios (where “Top Secret” was also filmed) near London. Filming lasted from March to August of 1996.

  One of the first obstacles they faced was a problem with obtaining the rights to film in Red Square. “Shooting in Red Square is the equivalent of filming on the lawn of the White House,” Mace Neufeld, one of three producers of the film.

  In other scenes they chose alternative locations. The American Embassy was located on a very busy street. Production designer Joe Nemac found another location, “We looked for an area that seemed to symbolize Russian architecture and have a lot of statues around.” He decided to use the Peeking Hotel. “We covered up the communist insignia and took away all the Chinese lettering, put up a gate and the flag, and we had our embassy.” Nemac used the Pearl building in London as the Kremlin. It was constructed of many materials similar to those in Russian architecture and didn’t have to be heavily modified to look Russian.