He would have turned 40 today. Unfortunately, River Phoenix died in 1993 of a drug overdose outside LA's Viper Room as Johnny Depp performed on stage inside.
FMV Magazine’s Simon Collings looks back at the short career of the enigmatic River Phoenix.
Twitch: Nineteen years after the death of River Phoenix the young star's final film has been completed and will finally be seen by audiences at the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht on September 27th.
Deadline says:
The family of late actor River Phoenix is disputing a director’s claim in a trade paper report that they are on board for a proposed re-release of Dark Blood, the 1993 film that Phoenix was shooting when he died of a drug overdose at age 23 in front of the Viper Room nightclub in West Hollywood. In the report, director George Sluizer said that he was reediting the film, planned to ask Joaquin Phoenix to overdub the voice of his brother and that Sluizer had stayed in touch with the family. All this is news to the Phoenix clan, per a spokesperson. “Despite George Sluizer’s claim that he has been communicating with River Phoenix’s family in regard to releasing River’s last film, Joaquin Phoenix and his family have not been in communication with the director nor will they participate in any way.”
