Photo
- Caption: River Phoenix as Boy in his last film ''Dark Blood''
- Description:
After filming “A Thing Called Love” was completed there were no definite projects in the pipeworks and River spent some time weighing up a few movie offers. One was a John Boorman project called “Safe Passage” and the other, which obsessed River, was an adaptation of the novel “Time of the Assassins”. This was the story of a tortured young 19th century French poet Arthur Rimbaud, a child prodigy who lived his life determined to experience everything, lived life to the fullest and died young. The parallels to River’s own life were startling.
Neither of these films were ever made.
One movie that River did out his signature to, but never filmed, was “Interview with the Vampire”. He was originally chosen to play the starring role as the Vampire but was replaced with Tom Cruise, and was then given the lesser role of Malloy, the narrator.
“Dark Blood” was the last film on which River was to work. He played Boy, a charming but terrifying character, who rescues two city dwellers played by Jonathan Pryce and Judy Davis when their car breaks down in the desert. From the start of filming numerous things went wrong on the set, from the actors to the locations. Much of the film’s major studio set scenes had still to be shot when the location filming was completed in late October 1993.
On the evening of 30th October River left his hotel room and joined some friends in the Viper Room on Sunset Strip. These friends included Samantha Mathis, his brother Leaf and Michael Balzary (Flea of Red Hot Chilli Peppers). Early in the morning of 31st October River was taken outside the club where he had seizures which lasted several minutes. A heart-wrenching emergency call was made to paramedics by his brother Leaf but, when they arrived, there was little they could do to save River. At 1.51 a.m. on Sunday, 31st October 1993 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center River Phoenix was pronounced dead. He was later cremated and his ashes scattered on the family ranch in Gainesville, Florida. - Actor/Actress/Director: River Phoenix ( photos )
- Movie: Dark Blood
- Id: 11028818
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