The Return of Richard Stanley

Richard Stanley, the South African director of cult favorites Hardware and Dust Devil, is slowly tunneling his way out of the movie jail he's been trapped in for over a decade after clashes with Val Kilmer led to him being fired four days into the shoot of the 1996 version of The Island of Dr. Moreau. Since then, Stanley has only filmed a couple of documentaries (both included in the ridiculously comprehensive and affordable 3 disc Dust Devil box set) and a few music videos and shorts, the most recent of which you can watch above.

Called Sea of Perdition, it's a "Warren comics style short" dealing with a Mars explorer who gets separated from her crew and then, uh, stuff happens. Ok, to be honest the film left me scratching my head as to what it's all supposed to mean, man, but there are boobs and a giant fish in a spacesuit. I'm pretty sure the fish symbolizes obviousness.

The good news is Stanley has two new films in the works. The first, called Vacation, is about a sleazy banker played by none other than Mr. Bruce Campbell who, along with his stripper girlfriend, goes on holiday to a Middle Eastern resort just in time for a nuclear holocaust that leaves them stranded with no money or resources in a land that resents everything about them. No word if Randy Quaid will show up as Cousin Eddie. The second film, called Bones of the Earth is about a psychotic veteran of the war in Afghanistan trying to take his revenge on a group of millionaire deer hunters. Stanley describes the film as Straw Dogs meets First Blood. I'm sold. Welcome back, Mr. Stanley.