Summary

Collider’s Aidan Kelley spoke with Waltzing with Brando director Bill Fishman at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Starring Billy Zane as Brando, the film takes place during the period of the actor’s life when he sought to build the first-ever ecologically perfect retreat in Tahiti.

In this interview, Fishman discusses how Waltzing with Brando took almost a decade to make, how the biopic stays authentic to Brando’s life, and the script he has his eyes on to direct next.

Few acting icons can claim to have the level of timeless calibur as Marlon Brando. A Streetcar Named Desire alone is arguably one of the most iconic and influential dramas ever created, and that’s just scratching the surface. It wasn’t until later that Brando’s career somehow managed to blossom into something even more substantial thanks to key roles in mega-hit classics like The Godfather, Apocalpyse Now, and Superman. It was a busy time for Brando, and as the new film Waltzing with Brando shows us, it wasn’t just because he was starring in some big movies.
Featuring Billy Zane as the titular star and Jon Heder as architect Bernard Judge, Waltzing with Brando showcases Marlon Brando’s quest to escape the mundanity and greed of Hollywood to live a happy private life on a sustainable island resort. Despite not yet having a concrete wide release date, Waltzing with Brando has already been making headlines for the fan-favorite Zane, who is almost a spitting image of Brando. The film’s director, Bill Fishman (who previously worked with Zane on Posse), agrees, and we had the chance to speak with him ahead of the film’s debut at the Palm Springs International Film Festival for more insight into how long the movie took to get made, how accurate it is to the real-life story, and what project Fishman may have lined up next.
‘Waltzing with Brando’ Took Almost a Decade To Make

“The way to do this is through comedy.”

Image via VMI

COLLIDER: Congrats on the movie. It’s got to be a dream come true to talk about one of the most legendary actors to ever live.
BILL FISHMAN: Yeah, it has been. It was pretty much about eight to 10 years in the making from the time I first read the book that Bernard Judge wrote about the event to showing it here in Palm Springs. It’s probably at least eight years.
It came out pretty good when you got Billy Zane, who looks literally identical [to Brando].
FISHMAN: Billy has a really amazing, transformative performance that I really think people are responding to, even beyond my wildest dreams. I mean, he really embodies Brando in a way that is so fluid and effortless that I believe people are actually thinking they’re watching a lost Marlon Brando movie.
You mentioned it took a long time to get to this on the big screen.
FISHMAN: Adapting the book to a screenplay took me a long time because it was a very dry, technical book about building an environmentally perfect sanctuary in Tahiti before they had the technical knowledge to do so, or the equipment. It was very serious, so it took me a while to actually come around to the idea that, “Hey, the way to do this is through comedy.” Make it light, enjoyable, and have some functional message about about Marlon Brando. About the environment, about what was going on in Tahiti.” So we started shooting in LA while we could and then waited for the island to open and cast Jon Heder. It was almost as big a task as building the sanctuary.
Bill Fishman’s Brando Biopic Is More Accurate Than You Think

“I resisted the temptation to create drama.”

I imagine with COVID, the great obstacle everyone went through. Even the most accurate biopics take some creative liberties. If you were to guess, how accurate would you say the movie is to the actual events?
FISHMAN: Well, I would say that this is very accurate. In other words, I resisted the temptation to create drama where there wasn’t. We did create some characters that were compilations of two or three characters, as people do in these films. But all the events were either first-hand from Bernie or first-hand or second-hand from people that have known Brando family members, or well documented, and some not well documented. So it’s all there. It’s all true. I mean, offhand, I can’t think of any scene that was fictitious.
The one scene where I’m like, “I can’t picture that,” is the eel scene.
FISHMAN: The eel scene is absolutely true, and as a matter of fact, some of it is anecdotal, of course, but Billy was talking to [someone], and he said Brando called Ed Begley Jr. and he said, “Hey, you know about the environment. I want to talk to you about generating power with electric eels.” He came up to the house, and he’s like, “Oh, no, no, I don’t think that could really happen.” And showed him the eels! And he said, “I don’t know if you can really do this.” And Brando said, “It’s always ‘no’ with you!” So all of this stuff is constructed from anecdotal stuff, everything — the jet landing on the island, the bee in his mouth. All of the little details, everything’s pretty much accurate.
Bill Fishman Wants To Make a Movie About a President and a Writer Next

I was already excited. Now I’m even more excited to see it. Even though it seems like with someone like Marlon Brando, it’s like, “Okay, I peaked. I can stop making movies here,” are there any other historical figures or other actors that you want to make a movie about?
FISHMAN: There are. I’m talking right now about doing a movie about Richard Nixon and Hunter S. Thompson. So, we’ll see. That might be the next.
Waltzing with Brando is currently awaiting an official release date. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

Movie star Marlon Brando recruits a Los Angeles architect to build the world’s first ecologically perfect retreat on a small, uninhabited island in Tahiti.

Release Date

November 30, 2024

Director

Bill Fishman

Cast

Billy Zane
, James Mackie
, Richard Dreyfuss
, Tia Carrere
, Jon Heder
, Rob Corddry
, Camille Razat
, James Jagger
, Sofia Masson
, Tanna Frederick
, Mark Canjar
, David Gueriera
, Patrick McLain
, Charles Venturi

Writers

Bill Fishman
, Bernard Judge