River Phoenix plays his role as young Indiana Jones in the motion picture “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” (Lucasfilm)
MIAMI (AP) ― When actor Jonathan Pryce first received a copy of River Phoenix’s last film “Dark Blood,” it sat unwatched on his desk for months. He worried about how he would feel reliving Phoenix’s death, growing nostalgic about memorable dinners the two shared after long days of filming in Utah and recalling the shocking 5 a.m. phone call telling him the young actor had died.
“It’s very hard to comprehend for a while. It was a terribly sad time,” said Pryce, who starred in the film alongside Phoenix and Judy Davis.
Now, 20 years later, “Dark Blood” made its U.S. premiere at the Miami International Film Festival on Wednesday, a testament to the endurance of 80-year-old director George Sluizer, who almost died before the film was completed, and a tribute to Phoenix’s timeless charisma. It’s uncertain whether the film will ever go to a general release. Sluizer said negotiations are ongoing with the company that owns the movie.
In the film, Pryce and Davis play a jet-set Hollywood couple who travel through the desert desperately trying to save their marriage on a second honeymoon. They seek shelter in Phoenix’s shack after their car breaks down, unaware that he intends to keep them as prisoners. Phoenix played Boy, whose wife died of leukemia from nuclear testing, leaving him alone and isolated in the desert.
But the journey to complete the film is every bit as dramatic as the story itself. Phoenix, a rising star from “Stand by Me” and “My Own Private Idaho,” was 23 when he died in 1993 outside The Viper Room in Los Angeles.