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Richard Stanley2-by Xabier Cid-

Top 10 Little Known Facts about Richard Stanley

A well-known South African director who specializes in the horror genre is Richard Stanley. He was born on 22 November 1966  in Fish Hoek, Cape Town, South Africa.

Stanley began his career directing music videos and short films before moving on to the cult classic feature films Hardware (1990) and Dust Devil (1992).

He was the initial director of The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), but owing to artistic differences, he was fired before principal photography even began.

This incident is detailed in the 2014 documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau.

After more than 20 years, he made a comeback to the big screen in 2019 by helming the H. P. Lovecraft adaption Color Out of Space. Below are 10 little-known facts about Richard Stanley.

1. High school was Stanley’s first experience with filmmaking

S. Sombra (Stanley Richard Slijngard)-by We El-

When he attended the Young Filmmaker’s Workshop in high school, Stanley made his first step into the world of filmmaking.

Rites of Passage, his debut movie, was made here. The 10-minute short film, which was shot on super-8 stock, contrasts modern man with a prehistoric man.

In the end, the short earned Stanley the 1984 IAC International Student Film Trophy.

2. His storied past of ingenuity and destruction precedes him

Although he only has three commercially successful films to his credit (along with a few shorts and documentaries), his legendary tales of grit and failure precede him.

Casting Marlon Brando in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), the movie from which he was infamously fired, he admitted that he resorted to witchcraft knowing that the odds were against him.

When he first left for France to look for the Holy Grail, he declared, that he didn’t think he’d ever create another movie again.

3. A fantasy project for Stanley that failed miserably was his 1996 version of HG Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau

Richard Stanley-by Konrad Jacobs-

The day before the Australian filming, Marlon Brando’s daughter committed suicide, putting the production temporarily on hold while he was away.

Co-star Val Kilmer repeatedly treated Stanley with disrespect. The set was almost destroyed by a hurricane. After barely three days of filming, Stanley was let go and John Frankenheimer took his place.

Stanley didn’t receive credit for his work on the movie. The excellent 2014 documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau explored the entire episode.

4. Stanley traveled to Afghanistan due to his curiosity about shape-shifting

Richard Stanley pictured in the woods-by Scarlett Amaris-

Having escaped to Europe to avoid being drafted into the South African army, he was inspired by stories from an Afghan crew member about actual “shape-shifters” in Afghanistan’s rough mountain regions while making music videos there.

He chose to go there and use it as an excuse to do research for a movie he was going to write.

In order to explore these difficult-to-reach mountain regions and record his findings, he also brought a stash of 16mm clockwork film cameras and cans of filmstock.

This material, incidentally, was later combined into the lovely thirty-minute short film Voice Of The Moon, which also appears as an extra on the Hardware blu-ray and features music by Simon Boswell.

5. He is the great-grandson of Sir Henry Stanley

Richard Stanley was born and raised in Africa by a father who was a surfer photographer and a mother who was an anthropologist (famous author Penny Miller).

He’s the great-grandson of Sir Henry  Stanley, a well-known journalist and soldier of fortune who became legendary for finding and saving the missing explorer David Livingstone in Africa and for saying the memorable words “Doctor Livingstone, I presume.”

6. Stanley was a fan of Lovecraft since he was a kid

Stanley had loved Lovecraft since he was a little child. By the time he was eight years old, his mother had read him every single piece of writing by the author.

In order to give the Color Out of Space movie a female voice, he co-wrote the script with Scarlett Amaris, and Elijah Wood’s production company, SpectreVision, picked it up.

SpectreVision had just finished filming the hallucinogenic 2018 horror thriller Mandy, which also starred Nicolas Cage. The actor was eager to take the lead in this as well.

According to Stanley, his goal was to capture Lovecraft’s sense of cosmic horror. Which is to see the sheer insignificance of one’s place in the universe.

The infinite cosmos that surrounds us, and in deep time, the fact that we are just a split second surrounded by billions of years on either side, and our lives will truly be forgotten.

7. During his early years, he witnessed goat sacrifices and witch doctors

His mother, Penny Miller, is an anthropologist from England who settled in Africa.

She traveled the continent for years after his birth while conducting research for her book, Myths, and Legends of Southern Africa. She saw witch doctors and witnessed goat sacrifices while traveling with her small kid.

8. Stanley retreated to Montségur

Stanley withdrew to Montségur, a remote mountain community in southern France, his career in shreds.

Since then, he has resided there and worked as a mountain guide, guiding tourists to caves and Neolithic ruins while also writing scripts and producing esoteric films.

9. He worked as director of music videos

Richard Stanley, Rodrigo Gudiño, David Michan, and Tim Luna at Morbido 2012 opening Patzcuaro Michoacan-by Morbido Film Fest-

By a stroke of luck, Stanley was given the opportunity to direct a music video for the goth band “The Fields of the Nephilim,” who were at the time still looking for a record deal.

Later work on their music videos and record covers solidified his standing as a gifted visual artist and commercial director.

He continued to direct videos for a variety of companies, including Public Image Limited, S- Express, Noir Desire, Marillion, and Renegade Soundwave.

10. He was fired by SpectreVision after assault allegations 

Scarlett Amaris, a screenwriter who had previously worked with Stanley on multiple projects, claimed in a blog post in March 2021 that they had been abusive to one another.

Later, Color Out of Space’s producer, SpectreVision, declared that it would no longer collaborate with Stanley and that all future profits from the movie would be donated to organizations that fight domestic violence.

In reaction to the accusation, Stanley has filed criminal accusations for libel and harassment, according to a story from the Hollywood news site Deadline on October 25, 2021.

Richard Stanley, a South African filmmaker and screenwriter of cult horror movies, is well known in the business for his chaotic production processes.