River Phoenix's final film 'Dark Blood' to get US premiere after 20 years

[kadu335]

Posted: 2/6/13 at 8:37pm

River Phoenix was 11 days away from completing his role in 'Dark Blood' when he died of a drug overdose outside The Viper Room nightclub in Hollywood in 1993.

At the time, the studio canned the film because it was cost-prohibitive to replace Rivers or edit around his absence. The footage sat in a vault for several years until the movie's director, George Sluizer, heard it was going to be burned to make space. He acted quickly to organize a heist of the footage and move it to the Netherlands.

After suffering a health scare that left him near death, Sluizer decided to finish the film. "I said, well I want to finish the film and to leave not a garbage bag of film, but something decent," Sluizer tells the BBC. "I did my best, with the material I had, to make it an understandable and plausible story. Apparently people say it works."

"Dark Blood", which also stars Jonathan Pryce and Judy Davis, will make its U.S. debut in March at the Miami International Film Festival.

http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2013/01/river-phoenixs-final-film-dark-blood-to-premiere-at-miami-film-festival.html

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This news is actually a couple of weeks old, but I just learned about this now. I'm a HUGE River Phoenix fan so I'm really excited about finally watching this!

[kadu335]

Posted: 2/15/13 at 10:30pm

Some reviews are in...

from The Hollywood Reporter (Very Positive):
"Left unfinished when River Phoenix died of drug-related causes in the middle of shooting, this terrifically played and superbly photographed three-hander reveals to what extent the 23-year-old star was an intense and unpredictable talent."

from Variety (Positive):
"Phoenix exerts a suitably charismatic and commanding air in his final role, making Boy a complex, fully mature character."

from The Guardian (Mixed to Positive):
"Phoenix's performance is as fragmentary and uneven as the film itself but has an energy about it that reminds us of why he seemed such a distinctive screen presence before his untimely death."