 Val Kilmer (qv) described the shoot as "crazy".  Marlon Brando (qv) was still recovering from the suicide of his  daughter and the day production started the French set off an  underwater atomic bomb near Tahiti where Brando owned an atoll. Then  Kilmer learned that he was getting divorced when he turned on the  TV. Two days later the director Richard Stanley (I) (qv) was fired  by the studio due to their concerns over the direction of the film.  John Frankenheimer (qv) was then hired to replace Stanley but from  the start clashed with Brando, Kilmer, and studio executives  regarding the direction of the film.