Val Kilmer, whose off-screen antics and oft-altering appearance have long overshadowed his previously interesting film career, is revealing the grace at least to have a dig at his own persona.
The actor, whose big-screen successes in Top Gun, Willow, The Doors seem all too long ago, has the lead role of motivational speaker in an experimental feature film, comprised of three 30-minute vignettes, directed by a trilogy of international directors.
Kilmer's offering by director Harmony Korine is the first to shoot in Nashville in the coming weeks, and he is certainly enthused: “I've never been more nervous during a comedy, and I've truly never been treated with more respect and pure love.”
The other two bits will be filmed in Russia and Poland. Grolsch Film Works, funding the enterprise, are hopeful that it will bring something completely new to the film community.
Project creative director Eddy Moretti explained, “The mandate of the project is to create cinematic experiences with filmmakers that have truly unique approaches to character and story-telling. I created a weird and wonderful brief that tasks each director to create riveting characters that inhabit supra-normal worlds."
Kilmer will next be seen in more traditional Hollywood fare - Francis Ford Coppola’s Twixt - so could this be the beginning of a resurgence from a man who flew a bit too near the stardom sun? Watch this space.
Meanwhile, here's Moretti's weird and wonderful brief in full, so you can consider whether Kilmer, whose best onscreen moment arguably remains finger-spinning a volleyball on his finger in a particularly threatening and erotic way (Top Gun, 1986) fits the bill...
Dear Director from another land, here are your instructions...
This film must be the best film you have ever made.
It should blur the line between what is real and what is fake.
We must never know “the truth.”
We need to be shown things we have never been shown before.
We need to go places that we may not have been before.
You need to take us to a different world, an unknown world.
You cannot be afraid. Be bold.
The hero needs to be bold. Bold in an unexpected way.
The hero also has to be flawed.
The hero must never appear to be a “hero.”
The hero must have greatness thrust upon him or her.
The hero must have a missing tooth.
The hero tells bad jokes. But they're good.
The hero needs to believe in something so deeply that nothing else matters.
The hero needs to be independent.
Eccentrics are good.
People with “too much character” are good.
People who live outside the mainstream are good.
People who look a different way are good.
People who move a different way are good.
Stray dogs are good. They can be really meaningful.
There needs to be music playing within the scene.
Someone must sing a song that is completely made up.
There needs to be a character named “Mickey House.”
There needs to be love.
Someone should wear tap shoes.
A stuffed animal needs to make an appearance.
You must try and make this film look very beautiful.
The director must direct one scene from the film with a blindfold on over his or her eyes.
We will choose that scene.
We will film the director while he or she is directing that scene.
We must hear someone tell a great story.
The story must be something that has actually happened to the writer/ director in real life, something that they have never revealed to anyone else.
A character must say “Don't worry, I'm sure you will survive.”
We need to see what the sky looks like where you are filming.
This is really important: you must refer to the “Fourth Dimension.”
And you must show us a glimpse of this “Fourth Dimension.”
It should challenge our commonly held assumptions of what the “Fourth Dimension” is.
Director, your audience must walk away transformed, transfixed, excited and even afraid of their own potential as
human beings.
Catch lighting in a bottle.
Give us magic.
Director, you cannot fail. We’re all behind you.