Cinemavault has acquired worldwide rights to the thriller Dark Blood, which earned notoriety for being the film River Phoenix was acting at the time of his death in 1993. Source: www.screendaily.com

Feel free to join our new Film Forum to discuss River and films in general. Hopefully over the summer we can create a community of film fans to discuss our love of films…
Forum

It’s been 20 years since River Phoenix’s death, and Gus Van Sant’s 1991 road movie My Own Private Idaho is still almost unbearably sad to watch. It isn’t just that Phoenix’s charisma and promise are on full display, though Idaho ranks alongside Running On Empty and Dogfight among his best roles. It’s the way Van Sant’s script leaves Phoenix in a state of constant vulnerability, like a turtle without its shell. At times, his character’s narcolepsy—in which he suddenly, unpredictably falls into a deep sleep—feels like a narrative contrivance, an ongoing deus ex machina calibrated to pivot the story in whatever direction Van Sant decides to take it. But it’s really more a metaphor for a lonely, loveless drifter who has no defense against a world that can take his money, his heart, and his life. Phoenix and his character aren’t one and the same, but they share an openness and sensitivity that’s keenly felt in My Own Private Idaho. They’re prey for a rapacious world. Read More here

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. Read More here

View our new online River & Joaquin gallery here

River Phoenix died at in 1993 at just 23 years of age, and to a certain generation of then-teenage movie fans, of whom this writer was one, it was maybe the first of that kind of celebrity death, the kind you remember where you were when you heard about it. I was in a car with my mom, and I recall the radio report ended with a mention of Federico Fellini’s death the same day (at 73 the Italian director, despite his greatness, was always going to be the Farrah Fawcett to Phoenix’s Michael Jackson in the coincidental celebrity death stakes). Now 20 years on, the Berlin Film Festival is showing Phoenix’s last film, “Dark Blood,” by Dutch director George Sluizer (the original “The Vanishing” and his vastly inferior American remake) in unfinished form, and it makes for surprisingly thought-provoking viewing. To read more click here

The mysterious movie that River Phoenix was making at the time he overdosed on drugs in 1993 is finally coming to America — 20 years later. Dark Blood‘s first American preview is set for this year’s Miami International Film Festival (March 1-10, 2013). Eventually the film is expected to gain national distribution and make its way to local theaters. That’s good news for fans of local singer-songwriter James Michael Taylor. Three of his songs are featured in the movie’s soundtrack. Continue reading here

test, test

River Phoenix’s final film, “Dark Blood,” is set to premier in North America at the 30th annual Miami International Film Festival, MIFF executive director Jaie Laplante announced Tuesday, Jan. 15 according to MSN. To continue reading click here

New works by Bille August, Richard Linklater, David Gordon Green and the last film starring River Phoenix are among the final selections of the Berlin Film Festival’s main Competition lineup. A total of 24 films will screen in the official program, 19 of which will vie for the Golden and Silver Bears. To continue reading click here