Her actress counterpart Kate Bosworth was also impressed with Val, “He’s brilliant, he has his own process of working and he’ll throw something in the middle of the scene and you either play along or sit there shell-shocked. He raised the bar for me and that was good. In every scene he would do something insane.” For example, in once scene they laughed and fell down a flight of stairs, which was ad-libbed, but worked so well they kept it in the movie.
Josh Lucas also enjoyed working with Val, “Val is amazing to watch, he immediately became part of the Wonderland gang and I had to deny my liking him to do my character.”
When asked in an interview if Val was hard to work with, the director said, “He’s demanding, sure. If he asks you about his character's motivation and you’re not sure, you’re screwed. But he loves the ghosts of his real-life characters, and he is more passionate than any actor I’ve seen. You want somebody that intense if you’re going to play John Holmes in a movie about a quadruple murder.”
Val researched his role thoroughly by talking to fellow porn stars, watching interviews and documentaries about Homes, who died of AIDS in 1988. He didn’t watch any of Homes’ movies, “because he wasn’t a very good actor and I wasn’t going to learn that much. He was not a good actor, but he was a world-class hustler. And the difference is ... there’s some sense of satisfaction that has to come because the hustler figures out what you want and gives you this relative impression that you got it.”
The cast took photos, wrote poetry and created collages of their work during “Wonderland.” Val opened the display in Canadian museums during the Toronto International Film Festival where “Wonderland” has premiered. Their 400 pieces of art have already appeared in museums in London and Russia and went on tour across the country. Val also wrote a book about his experiences called “24 Days in Wonderland,” which is covered in another chapter (the film took 24 days to film).
Interesting Facts:
The wedding ring Val wears in the film is actually Holmes’ real ring, loaned by Sharon Homes
The movie’s budget was ten million dollars
24 Days in Wonderland
October 1, 2003?
Val has written a book about the filming of the movie “Wonderland” entitled “24 Days in Wonderland.” The idea of the book was to support the movie; Val was going to have a book tour in which he showed off the photography in the movie, being as the book is mostly photographs.
It doesn’t look like we’ll be able to see the content of the 160-page book probably ever, which is unfortunate because I’m sure that many people would want to read the book that didn’t want to see the movie, or who didn’t get a chance as it didn’t play everywhere. The book’s demise also wasn’t good for the movie, kind of a catch 22.
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Val did a commercial for a Nikon digital camera in 2002, the first time the company used a celebrity in one of its TV ads. The ad shows Val at first intimidated, but then discovering how easy to use the camera.
The director, Mr. Chechik was supposed to direct Val Kilmer in the independent film “The Woman Opposite,” however the project has apparently has fell through.
Val also has done a radio ad for defense giant Northrop Grumman Corp. One of the reasons they chose him was because of his role in “Top Gun,” where he flew a F-14 that was made by Grumman Corporation before Northrop bought them. The ads are supposed to influence Wall Street financiers and Washington D.C. policy makers.
The Missing
November 26, 2003
Ron Howard decided to expand his moviemaking horizon once more to include the Western. This movie is a small step in restoring Val Kilmer once again to the spotlight. This was only the second time that Val has worked with a director more than once.
The last time that Val worked with Mr. Howard he admits, “I was going a little nuts on ‘Willow’, but that was my style then. I didn’t trust that I couldn’t have an effect that would be positive (on the finished product) - I was living out a philosophy that what you think has a direct influence on your immediate surroundings. I apologized to George Lucas for two years.”
Tommy Lee Jones and Kate Blanchett are the main players in a movie more about failed relationships than life in the old West. Jones went so far as to learn to speak some Apache in preparation for his role. Tommy Lee Jones has done his share of finding people in movies, but according to Howard, “In this case, I was less interested in his ability to find people and more interested in what I thought would be his ability to convince us that he was enough of an individualist that he had made this radical choice to straddle both these worlds. I think that and my feeling, particularly in his performance in ‘Lonesome Dove,’ and of course I knew that he had been raised in Texas. I don’t think I realized how active a rancher he really was, but I just felt that after one conversation that his sense of what was true in this world and his instincts were going to be impeccable. And I thought that was really valuable.”
Howard hasn’t made a Western before, but he says, “The only thing that I was really able to apply were just the mechanics. Just sort of having some sense of what it was to work around livestock, that kind of action, period action. Those guns and using blanks and not getting people hurt, that sort of thing. I spent a lot of time trying to be true to the research and what I believed to be honest about the period and try not to bump into the clichés. So some of it was trying to avoid scenes and situations that I’d been around, either acted in or seen in films. But again, we had a huge leg up in that regard because of the characters and just because of the situations.”
The movie is based on Tomas Eidson's novel ‘The Last Ride,’ which was also the first title to the film. “The Missing” opened up earlier than previously expected in order to be eligible for Oscar consideration,.
The Night Job
“The Night Job” is MIA since April 2001. It was supposed to have starred Val and Dennis Hopper, but never materialized. Dennis Hopper was the only sure cast member ever announced; this was because he’s supposed to be directing the film as well. Keep on the lookout, this project might be revived yet.
George and the Dragon
Val is continuing with a strategy of doing cameos in big movies. This looks like it will be another big children’s movie for Val, with a production budget of thirty million dollars, and other major stars as well. Patrick Swayze plays his first major role as a villain, Piper Perabo is a princess, James Purefoy plays George and the cast is rounded out with Michael Clarke Duncan.
Mr. Duncan says, “I filmed that last year in Luxemburg. It was interesting over there. Luxemburg is a very dreary and rainy place. It rained every day and it was freezing cold. So I was over there with Val Kilmer and Patrick Swayze and we had a couple of big fight scenes in this old castle out in the moors or something like that. But it’s a fun movie. It’s a really fun movie.”
The movie was filmed in Luxemburg in an old abandoned mill, Brandenbourg castle and in France. “There are more and more films going on in Europe and also in Luxembourg,” according to Carousel’s (company that’s making the film) co-founder Romain Schroeder. “So it’s nothing unusual in the business anymore to shoot a film in Luxembourg.” Luxembourg also offers lucrative tax incentives and inexpensive labor to filmmakers.
One of the challenges of making the film was the dragon eggs. Peter Powis, the production designer describes how they made the eggs, “combining facts from dinosaur structure, present day alligator eggs, turtle eggs ... and you go off to your childhood fantasies of ... dragons and these mystical things that floated around ... it becomes very much an aspect much closer to the heart.”
Charities
“Suffering always needs hearing. It is important to make a distinction between what the giving effort is, humanitarian effort is, and politics,” Val Kilmer.
Global Releaf Program of American Forests
Val planted the 20 millionth tree, a sawtooth oak, of the Global Releaf Program of American Forests, a national con
servationist group since 1920. The group donated 5,000 trees to residents of Los Alamos, where the ceremonial planting took place. Val read his famous second cousin’s poem “Trees” for the event.
In a natural setting, forest fires are a natural part of the ecological cycle, however, when man tampers with forests, prevents fires, builds buildings in area, uses water excessively so that not as much is available for the forest, then raging forest fires can burn more intensely than usual, and natural regeneration can’t take place. With no trees, the land can become eroded. This is why it takes careful planning to replant these trees.
“The Forest Service is honored to be a partner with American Forests and the Wildfire ReLeaf program,” says Joel Holtrop, U.S. Forest Service’s Deputy Chief of State and Private Forestry. “Funded by the National Fire Plan, the agency is advancing the restoration and rehabilitation component of the Fire Plan through this partnership.”
Val also did a public service announcement about fire safety and forests.
Americares
Americares is a relief organization that has helped more than 110 countries around the world. Val got involved in a project in 1994. He says, “I called them because they had one of the highest rates of using dollars to use for overhead. They said, ‘what are you guys doing now?’ And they -- they said, ‘well, usually we have an immediate emergency, standard practice if it’s a flood or something, we think of aid to the air right away.’ But this had been going on for almost a year, and it was a trip to Baghdad, and I said ‘great, can I bring a cameraman?’ Because I was... experimenting with high-definition video. And they said ‘sure,’ and it was amazing. I had three days there... I didn’t have any hesitation at all. The mission is a humanitarian one, and is really reflective of AmeriCares’ style, which doesn’t take on issues of politics.”
The trip brought 90,000 pounds of medicine, baby food and other supplies to the residents of Iraq. The charity says Iraq’s leaders have assured them that the aid supplies will go only to civilians, and not the military. The volunteers will personally deliver the supplies to ensure they reach their destination.
Native preparatory school
The United States Department of Education reports the high school drop out rate of Native American students at 50% and on some reservations that figure reaches 70%. Native Americans account for less than 1% of all college students and 53% of that number drop out after their first year. Four out of ten Native students who remain in college take longer than six years to complete their degrees.
Richard Ettinger foresaw that secondary programs were needed that would challenge and inspire Native American students to complete higher education and these programs would need to integrate a respect for the philosophies of Native cultures with high academic standards.
In 1995, he established the Native American Preparatory School for gifted and talented Indian students. He knew that the school would provide effective future leaders that advocate Native American values. The four-year high school sits on a 1,600-acre campus in Rowe, New Mexico, and enrolls 74 students from 11 states and 32 nations. Almost half of the students regularly attain the honor roll. All students are expected to participate in a demanding schedule of classes, athletics, and service.
Val recognized the value of the school. The best way to promote the school is for people to see it firsthand, but that’s not always possible, so Val got Craig Foster and Jeffrey Joseph to help him (and his production company Blessed) to make a documentary about the school called, “Walking between two worlds.”
In the documentary, one of the students says, “Without knowing our own language, without knowing who we are, we’re extinct.”
Val himself says, “the Native American Preparatory School which is in New Mexico. They have the highest tuition and the least endowment of any private school in the country because no one has any money to send their kids to school, but it also as an organization has gotten more Native Americans represented than any other organization ever. So I made a film just to help try to get the word out about the school because it’s a very worthy one.”
New Mexico Academy
An open letter to Val
Thanks, Val!
The virtually brand-new weight-lifting equipment Val Kilmer donated to our school is terrific. The kids even started a new extracurricular activity here: the pumping-iron club.
I would like to thank Kilmer in the name of the physical-education teachers and that of the students of the New Mexico Academy for his thoughtfulness and generosity.
Fernando Multedo, Ed.D.
head of school and founder
New Mexico Academy
Santa Fe
Wildlife Center
The Wildlife Center is a New Mexico based foundation dedicated to the preservation of wildlife, and education of the public. It provides a place for injured and lost wildlife and provides a method they can be re-introduced into the wild. In certain cases, when the animals are too injured to ever be released, they become animal ambassadors that are sent into the community for educational purposes
Here is an example of the center’s work:
On September 7, 1999, Dale Bode, a district officer of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, got a call about two orphan bear cubs. Upon arrival, he decided to scare the cubs into climbing a tree, so they wouldn’t get hurt or run away. Officer Bode shot the cubs with a tranquilizer gun, one fell asleep and slid down the tree unharmed, the other bear didn’t react to the tranquilizer. He shot the cub again, but it still didn’t work.
Help arrived, another officer came, and the Texas-New Mexico Power Company sent a cherry picker to retrieve the cub from the tree. The scared cub was now almost at the top of an eighty-foot-tall tree. They decided that, although very dangerous, they would have to physically remove the cub from the tree, even though the cub would be strong enough to knock a person out of the cherry picker. There was about a twenty-minute struggle, and eventually a line was fastened to her, and they were able to pull the young bear down to safety. The whole ordeal lasted four hours.
The cubs were transported to the Wildlife Center that introduced them to two other orphan cubs. They stayed there until December 15, 1999 to avoid the hunting season and to add extra fat for hibernation. When they were ready, Val allowed all four cubs to be released onto his property to spend the winter where they would be safe. From there they eventually moved off into the wilderness.
Val donated a thirty-foot mammal cage to the center, which was in desperate need of adequate cage space. He raised money for the project by asking all his friends and relatives to donate money to the Wildlife Center for this purpose instead of giving him any kind of Christmas gift.
Other Charitable Causes
Val auctioned off a photo of his son on Ebay for $535.00 to benefit the Starbright Foundation
Supports Habitat for Humanity
Supports Lead or Leave
Nuclear Free Award Committee
For more information, or to contribute to these worthy causes please contact the following:
The Wildlife Center, Inc.
P.O. Box 246
Espanola, NM 87532
505-753-9505(T)
www.thewildlifecenter.org
The Native American Preparatory School
P.O. Box 260
Rowe, New Mexico 87562
505-474-6801x109(T)
505-474-6816(F)
www.naprep.org
www.habitat.org
www.americares.org
”We all have more time in the day than we realize,” Val explains. “If you've got a speedboat, there’s no reason you can’t enjoy it and still give a little back.”
Blind horizon/Black Point
I’ve beaten this subject into the ground already, but Val just loves New Mexico. “Blind Horizon,” or “Black Point” is a product of that love. The New Mexico Investment Council put up a $4.7 million no interest loan out of a budget of $5.1 million, this being the second movie deal made by t
he council. The state’s investment is a vital key to rebuilding the state’s film industry. Talented production people, from sound mixers to set designers often split their time between New Mexico and Los Angeles.
Val says, “It’s an investment, …it prove(s) that New Mexico is a viable state which it is. Always has been.”
Las Vegas might not be the first place you think of when you think of movies, but a total of 47 feature films have been made there. Maxine Padilla, office manager for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, praised the movie company, “It’s total Las Vegas…all the extras are from around here. They’re buying all the material they didn’t bring with them, here. The film crews are staying at Las Vegas hotels.”
Antoinette Gallegos, director of the Chamber of Commerce, estimated the movie could pump a quarter of a million dollars into the local economy. That includes renting rooms at more than half the town's 13 hotels and motels, eating out at local restaurants, buying fuel for vehicles at local pumps, buying lumber at local hardware stores for sets and hiring locals for various jobs. She says of their decision to hire all local security guards, “They felt it was easier for local security to do the job because they would know the people.”
Antoinette Gallegos, director of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, shied away from the first role she was offered in the film Blind Horizon, “The first thing they asked me to do was to be the dancing girl on the bar. I told them the Las Vegas Optic would have a field day with that - chamber director as dancing girl.” Gallegos did accept a role as the wife of a mayor. Las Vegas Mayor Henry Chavez turned down a chance to play a mayor. Town councilor Arthur Vigil accepted a chance to be mayor.
Blessed, Life and Films of Val Kilmer Page 12
