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Richard Stanleys career in Hollywood was supposed to be over.
Wells starring an aging and monomaniacal Marlon Brando.
But since then, everything hed worked so hard to build had fallen apart in spectacular fashion.
Brando repeatedly disappeared from set; Val Kilmer, playing Dr. Moreaus assistant, was also a nightmare.
And it was at this point that things got truly weird.
But when the plane arrived, Stanley wasnt on it.
Hed disappeared into the jungle.
Eventually, he sneaked back onto set, disguised as one ofDr.
The movie, when it was finally released, was acommercialandcriticalfailure.
A psychedelic adaptation of an H.P.
Soon after, the family finds itself battling an extraterrestrial entity that infects each member one by one.
Heres the story of Stanleys return to a movie set, in his own words.
Throughout his career, witchcraft and ritual have been woven into his filmmaking process.
Really, though, it started to gather impetus a few years ago.
That must have been somewhere around 2011.
The director says the doc helped rehabilitate his reputation with the powers that be.
Still,Colormight never have happened had some guy in Nevada not taken an interest.
I remember I was skeptical.
It was difficult for me to put two and two together at the time.
I didnt really believe the movie was getting made for a superlong time.
At that point, I started to realize that we were actually making the movie.
Nic pretty much single-handedly restored my faith in Hollywood.
He brought incredible energy to [the set], and was always willing to take direction.
An Argument With Lovecraft
What, exactly, isColorabout?
On set, the actors helped bring Stanleys specific version of the horror to life.
So, I saw much of the movie as being kind of an argument with Lovecraft.
In doing so, essentially weve relocated the story into a somewhat meta-textual world where Lovecraft himself possibly exists.
Nics a big H.P.
Lovecraft characters generally dont have positive learning experiences.
Usually, the only ways out of the story are death and madness.
[Nic] wasnt afraid to go there.
Ive been a fan of Tommys work since I was a teenager.
Uranie was probably the only person I know who placated Lovecrafts old guards in all due faith.
I became very fond of him over the 30 years I knew him.
We have it on videotape somewhere.
A storm blows up halfway through it.
It was all quite lighthearted.
Unfortunately, Uranie died slightly beforeColorgot started.
He passed from 30 years of untreated hepatitis C, so he didnt get to see the movie.
So we had to find someone to stand in for him, which was tricky.
So, I went after the next logical person: Tommy Chong.
I think everyone enjoyed the experience.
It helped put them into the right frame of mind for the movie.
There was a sense that we definitely felt protected.
There was an overgrown chapel out in the woods.
It is a little hard to bear.
So, I secretly shot all that stuff in the bunker at Sherman Oaks.
Much of that scene was shot in secret and then basically smuggled into the movie.
I guess you just have to chalk it up to the persuasive powers of black magic.
Now that hes successfully mounted a new movie, is he ready to move beyondThe Island?
Or is he still bound to the project by Skips spell?
I dont know if Im that superstitious.
Its an eerie thing.
Its one of those projects that refuses to die.
No matter how far away I get from it, it keeps coming back to the doorstep.
But we dont know what those superpowers are doing behind our backs.
Whos to say that the beast people dont already exist in some form?
Its also the way that the effects are going.
If I do return to the project, I guess Ill just have to hope for better luck.
I havent really learned an awful lot.
Its just that this time everything fortunately ran according to plan and schedule.
Were currently in the early stages of prepping for a new adaptation of The Dunwich Horror.
That film will be set a few years after the events inColor Out of Space.
Im hoping that this time well have a more generous budget to play with.
We are edging, movie by movie, toward a full-scale Lovecraftian apocalypse.
It has a nice sense of predestination about it.
