River Phoenix's Final Film To Be Released: 'Dark Blood' Getting Recut

A brilliant young talent whose life was tragically cut short, River Phoenix's final film will finally be seen by public eyes.

The Oscar-nominated Phoenix was filming "Dark Blood" when he died of a heart attack after an apparent drug overdose, ending an already prolific career at age 23. The film, in which he was starring as a hermit living at a nuclear test site, waiting for the end of the world, was kept hidden by its director, George Sluizer, for fear that the footage would be confiscated and destroyed.

Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Sluizer is plans on finishing the film by recutting that footage and asking River's brother, Joaquin Phoenix, to provide missing voice work.

The young actor was a talent on the rise; he had already earned an Oscar nod for his work in "Running on Empty," playing for Sidney Lumet the son of parents on the run. and had made seminal films such as "Stand By Me" and "My Own Private Idaho." He also starred as a young Indiana Jones. His career began in 1982, in the TV show, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," and then in TV movies, including one in which he played a dyslexic boy. In 1985, he played Robert Kennedy Jr. in the TV miniseries "Robert Kennedy and His Times."

For more, click over to The Hollywood Reporter.

Comments

[KangKodosOfQueens]

12:10 PM on 10/21/2011

I can't believe he died in 1993, so many years ago. I was 25, but it seems like only a few years ago. Boy, I'm getting old.

[jdrourke]

10:24 AM on 10/21/2011

Phoenix was a terrific actor whose talent was undeniable. I remember this production - Dark Blood - which co-starred Judy Davis and Jonathan Pryce. My understanding was that there was not nearly enough footage to complete it.

Guess we'll see.

[Paul S]

01:45 PM on 10/20/2011

truly amazing artist and human being....none like him since and never will be again. he is missed.

[Howard53545]

01:43 PM on 10/20/2011

River is going to make money and he is dead.

[Blue123]

01:04 PM on 10/20/2011

I enjoyed all of his movies. I will see this one when it comes out on DVD.

[cluttery]

09:03 AM on 10/20/2011

River Phoenix was a wonderful artist and his work has stood the test of time. His personal life was just that--personal. As a child actor he was stunning. We don't know what he would have become, but I for one am glad for the chance to see his last work. RIP River Phoenix, still beloved.

[ultimateyoga108]

09:01 AM on 10/20/2011

The River Of Life.... what a beautiful spirit inside.
Such an extraordinary actor, activist and selfless being.
I Love you and Phoenix Crew

[bdazz]

07:23 AM on 10/20/2011

I think it explains (his past) his great depth at being an actor. You so easily want to be anyone but yourself because of the shame and self loathing. He seemed so pure in spirit. Like Heath Ledger..gone way too soon.

[Elissa Sara]

04:24 AM on 10/20/2011

He died on Halloween night I recall. I was then living in Hollyweird a stone's throw from the Viper Room and someone came into the party I was at moments after it happened. We were all shocked and upset.
I had recently interviewed him for a magazine and he was pretty out of it during our meeting at the Chateau Marmont, but I thought just on weed. I asked him about drug use and he told me how natural he was and he would never take anything hard... but he would say that wouldn't he.
He was really into a farm and some land he had bought in Gainesville and was excited about getting back there with his massage therapist girlfriend. He was actually very sensitive and lovely to talk to... and felt to be quite open with me but underneath his quiet thoughtful demeanour he did seem troubled... and the reports I heard from people I talked to on The Gus Van Sant movie was that he was using hard stuff. It was weird, a few years down the road I was playing some old tapes... I used to record music over my old interview tapes. And when the music stopped, there was the voice of this young guy talking about someone he knew dying young and unexpectedly... I'd totally forgotten. Took me a while to realize it was River's voice. Sad.

[DixieMelody]

12:47 PM on 10/20/2011

Thank you for sharing this first-hand account with us, but. . .

I just can't get past the "Taped music OVER River Phoenix interview."

[Elissa Sara]

03:57 AM on 10/21/2011

I know..... I kept most tapes for quite a while ( had to for legal reasons) but really, I was living a different life and let go of a lot of things.

[cybersoulsista]

12:24 AM on 10/20/2011

I was a huge fan of River...he was such a talented young man and he would have been a BIG success now if he would have conquered his demons.

[avodah]

12:21 AM on 10/20/2011

so u do a drug oversode, or maybe commit suicide, and you become a hero in the eyes of the living, logic!

[DixieMelody]

12:31 AM on 10/20/2011

You obviously know NOTHING about him.

Read the posts then ask yourself how you would deal with the abuse he suffered as a child. . . with that abuse enabled by YOUR parents.

[avodah]

01:38 AM on 10/20/2011

so i was abused, ok i wanna be a hero, i gonna kill myself,... thats the answer solution? come one people, change things dont just escape and throw ur aqrms in the air, sheesh do u have any clue how many of us have been 'abused'?!

[avodah]

01:41 AM on 10/20/2011

i aint gonna get into it, but alot of people have been abused. the solution is castration, but the people who want to continue these abuses wont allow a JUST solution

[SimonBao]

12:57 AM on 10/20/2011

May you be judged with the same grace and humility with which you judge others.

[avodah]

01:35 AM on 10/20/2011

and i re affirm. poor lad ending life so soon. a proverb says: better a living DOG than a DEAD lion

[Film Shark]

11:26 PM on 10/19/2011

We lost River Phoenix WAY too soon.

[DrJohnnySkeptic]

09:58 PM on 10/19/2011

Sounds intriguing. I'd like to see that.

[Akizme72]

09:44 PM on 10/19/2011

River Phoenix holds a special place in my heart. He sits right there, slightly to the right of Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. A beautifully gifted actor with a light coming from the inside; A soul way too soon departed -and yes, as far as I am concerned Paul Newman should have lived to be 135. Same for Steve McQueen. And yes, same for River.

[FormerlyTCnSRQ]

10:31 PM on 10/19/2011

Newman was a very elegant man and his devotion to charity was inspiring.

[Matti Ellrik Holpainen]

08:19 PM on 10/20/2011

River Phoenix, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen were not only brilliant actors, but wonderful human beings as well. ^.^

[DixieMelody]

07:51 PM on 10/19/2011

Based on his unbelievably tragic childhood (which irreparably scarred his psyche), I believe the drugs were his way of subconsciously committing slow suicide. . .

And his reprehensible "parents" were complicit in his death.

[Annie KLo]

08:02 PM on 10/19/2011

What was tragic about his childhood? I don't know anything about it, I thought his parents were just hippies who named their kids after nature.

[DixieMelody]

08:10 PM on 10/19/2011

He was doomed from day one by his parents who belonged to the cult Children of God:

NO education, a nomadic life with parents who never worked, being expected to support them and his siblings after he was "discovere­d" . . .

AND maybe above all else, being passed around (as were all children in the cult) for physical gratificat­ion of adults from age FOUR.

Google Children of God to learn the depravity of what they did to the children.