Shooting
The chosen location for the film was the rain forest outside Cairns in North Queensland, Australia, including Bramston Beach, Queensland, Mossman Gorge, etc. Tensions between Stanley and New Line had been growing during pre-production, partly because of Stanley's quirky, insular nature, and his marked unwillingness to attend studio meetings, but they reached crisis point within the first few days of filming. Stanley's vulnerability to studio pressure was exacerbated by the continuing absence of his main ally, Brando, but the biggest problem proved to be the notorious on-set behaviour of Kilmer, who reportedly arrived two days late.
Kilmer later attributed his obnoxious behaviour to the fact that, just as filming began, he learned from a television report that he was being sued for divorce by his wife of seven years, Joanne Whalley. Whatever his reasons, many of the cast and crew have testified to Kilmer's bullying and his consistently hostile and obstructive manner during the first days of shooting. He would not deliver the dialogue as scripted and repeatedly criticized Stanley's ideas; what little footage was shot was deemed unusable.
The studio mainly seems to have blamed the director for not getting Kilmer under control, but another significant factor was the sudden departure of co-star Rob Morrow on the second day of shooting. With the location being pounded by bad weather that had temporarily stopped filming, Morrow found himself unable to bear the tension and hostility on set any longer, so he telephoned New Line chairman Rob Shaye in Hollywood and tearfully begged to be let go. Shaye agreed.
After a third day of filming, following emergency consultations with its on-set executives, New Line abruptly fired Stanley by fax. The beleaguered director reacted angrily, shredding documents in revenge and then vanishing after being delivered to the airport for the return flight to Hollywood. The reasons for Stanley's dismissal were not made clear and false rumours were spread about his allegedly erratic behaviour, but the main reasons appear to have been his perceived unwillingness to deal with studio executives and especially his problems in dealing with Kilmer, whose already well-established reputation for being "difficult" was soon to be enshrined in movie lore thanks to this film.
Stanley had been offered his full fee on condition that he leave the production quietly and not speak about his firing, so his disappearance caused consternation at New Line, who feared he might try to sabotage the filming. His removal also predictably sent shock waves through the cast and crew. Outraged female lead Fairuza Balk stormed off the set after a heated exchange with New Line executives and then had a production assistant drive her all the way from Cairns to Sydney - a distance of some 2,500 km - in a rented limousine. By her own account however, Balk's agent then warned her in blunt terms that the studio would ruin her and that she would never work in films again if she broke her contract, so she was soon forced to return to the set.
With a potential disaster looming, New Line brought in veteran director John Frankenheimer. He came on board in part because - like virtually every member of the cast and crew - he wanted the opportunity to work with the legendary Brando, but he also used the studio's desperation to his advantage, successfully demanding a hefty fee and a three-picture deal in exchange for his services. Well known as one of the last of the "old style" Hollywood directors, Frankenheimer's gruff, dictatorial approach was radically different from Stanley's and he soon alienated many of the cast and crew. Brando agreed to his decision to have the then-current script by Stanley, Michael Herr and Walon Green rewritten by Frankenheimer's previous collaborator Ron Hutchinson. Frankenheimer also needed to find a new lead actor to replace Rob Morrow and brought in David Thewlis to play Douglas. The whole production was shut down for a week and a half while these changes were implemented.
Once shooting resumed, the problems continued and escalated. Brando routinely spent hours in his air-conditioned trailer when he was supposed to be on camera, while actors and extras sweltered in the tropical heat in full make-up and heavy costumes. The antipathy between Brando and Kilmer rapidly escalated into open hostility and on one occasion, as recounted in Lost Soul, this resulted in the cast and crew being kept waiting for hours, with each actor refusing to come out of his respective trailer before the other. New script pages were turned in only a few days before they were shot. Frankenheimer and Kilmer had an argument on-set, which reportedly got so heated, Frankenheimer stated afterwards, "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".
According to Thewlis, "we all had different ideas of where it should go. I even ended up improvising some of the main scenes with Marlon". Thewlis went on to rewrite his character personally. The constant rewrites also got on Brando's nerves and, as on many previous productions, he refused to learn lines, so he was equipped with a small radio receiver, so that his assistant could feed his lines to him as he performed - a technique he had used on earlier films.
Thewlis recollected that Brando would "be in the middle of a scene and suddenly he'd be picking up police messages and would repeat, 'There's a robbery at Woolworths'". Meanwhile, friction between him and Kilmer elicited the former's quip: "Your problem is you confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent". Upon completion of Kilmer's final scene, Frankenheimer is reported to have said to the crew, "Now get that bastard off my set". Kilmer denied having a feud with Brando. He shared some behind-the-scenes footage of friendly moments he had with Brando as well as his complaining to Thewlis about Frankenheimer in the documentary Val. In his memoir I'm Your Huckleberry, Kilmer said "John Frankenheimer went on to blame me publicly for ruining the movie. I always thought it an odd thing to try to do, blame me for his failure to make an entertaining film, because my character dies halfway through, and the last half of the film sucks as bad as the first". Screenwriter Ron Hutchinson said "everybody behaved monstrously to each other" and Brando had "poisonous" relations with most actors. Brando also wanted to change the script to add his own plot points and decided not wanting his character to die.
Stanley had reportedly jokingly told the film's production designer to burn the set down, but when Stanley disappeared after being fired, security was tightened in case he was trying to sabotage the project. Stanley later revealed that he had stayed in Australia; suffering an emotional breakdown, he had retreated to a remote area in the Cairns region to recover. There, he had a chance meeting with some of the film's former production staff, who had been rehired as extras and were camping in the area. It was confirmed by these same production staff in the Lost Soul documentary that with their help Stanley secretly came back to the set over several days, disguised in full costume as one of the dog-men, and performed as an extra on the film he originally had been hired to direct. It has been reported that he showed up at the film's wrap party, where he ran into Kilmer, who was said to have apologized profusely for Stanley's removal from the film.
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