“They just paid me a tonne of dough”: the movie Val Kilmer admits “just didn’t turn out”
Movie stars are often lured into signing onto a project for no other reason than the promise of untold riches, which was more than enough to convince Val Kilmer that embarking on an intergalactic odyssey was worth his time.
By the late 1990s, the actor’s star power was beginning to wane, with the hugely successful double-whammy of Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever and Michael Mann’s Heat in the middle of the decade rapidly fading into the distance as the dawn of the millennium loomed ever closer.
The Island of Dr. Moreau bombed after one of the most infamously nightmarish productions in Hollywood history, bizarre romantic drama Dead Girl was eviscerated by critics, his reboot of The Saint didn’t perform well enough to generate the sequels he was hoping for, and insipid romance At First Sight was another flop.
With that in mind, when a major studio came knocking on Kilmer’s door offering him millions of dollars to star in an effects-heavy blockbuster, he would have been foolish to say no. However, his reputation for being a prickly customer reared its head yet again, with the most memorable thing about Red Planet by far the scuffles between the leading man and co-star Tom Sizemore.
Things boiled over to such an extent that Sizemore launched a 50-pound weight at Kilmer’s head, and tensions were so fraught the producers insisted that if they were going to fight, the best option was to go full Anchorman and avoid touching the hair and face. Taking that advice on board, the former reportedly punched the latter square in the chest.
Kilmer was said to have big-leagued Sizemore by telling him he was getting paid $10million for Red Planet while his opposite number was only making 20% of that amount. As a result, the first thing that came to mind when he reflected on the film with IGN was the fact that “they just paid me a ton of dough” for the movie, and he was happy to accept.
He also described it as “a fine experience,” albeit far from a successful one. “Everyone worked hard, and it just didn’t turn out,” he admitted. “Special effects and all that stuff is good, but I’d rather play characters.” One of two big-budget Martian extravaganzas released in the year 2000 alongside Brian De Palma’s Mission to Mars, Red Planet definitively lost the battle of the twin films.
It failed to recoup even half of its budget at the box office, was unanimously panned, and it remains the one and only feature first-time director Michael Hoffman has ever made. Fortunately for him, Kilmer ended up laughing all the way to the bank after netting himself a tasty eight-figure salary for the privilege.
