River Phoenix’s last movie gets rare showing in Berlin, may never go on general release

BERLIN – The late River Phoenix’s last movie, “Dark Blood,” has received a rare screening at the Berlin film festival.

But its director says the picture may never go out for general release.

George Sluizer told reporters Thursday negotiations with the financial company that owns the movie are “tough” because “they don’t care about culture, they care about money.”

Phoenix died of a drug overdose in October 1993 before filming on “Dark Blood,” co-starring, Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce, was completed. Phoenix stars as a young widower living in the Arizona desert who takes a couple prisoner.

Sluizer finished the movie last year by using voice-over narrative for some of the missing scenes.

The movie, first shown in the Netherlands last year, is running out of competition at the 63rd Berlinale.