OCCULT AUTEUR OBIT: What Really Happened To Stanley Kubrick & ‘Eyes Wide Shut’?
"No Dream Is Ever...Just a Dream."
[Originally published on MEDIUM, 15June2020; censored by MEDIUM 30June2021]
Here’s another twisted Tinseltown tale that friends of mine have heard for a couple years but I’ve never shared with the general public. It regards one of Hollywood’s greatest mysteries, right up there with the mysterious drowning of Natalie Wood: the curious death, maybe murder, of Stanley Kubrick, arguably the greatest English language film auteur of all time.
Before I start shoveling, let’s clear something up straight out of the (Heaven’s?) gate: Unlike most of the esoteric stuff I share here, I don’t have a smoking gun. I can’t “prove” any of this. All I can do is connect dots and tell you:
1- This is a story I’ve heard several times from several different people who don’t know each other. Two were Hollywood rats from my days as a kinda asshole-y film critic (not a movie reviewer), bouncing bi-coastal between ATL and L.A. One was a creepy dude from my days in Baltimore. And the final person was a guy in the witness protection program on Hawai’i’s Big Island who bought weed from the same pot dealer I did.
2- The puzzle pieces fit great. Even if this story isn’t true, it’s worth telling as myth. But I totally think it’s true, or else I wouldn’t be sharing it.
[ESPIONAGE ASIDE: Did you know that the Big Island of Hawai’i is the #1 spot on the planet for people in the USA’s Witness Protection Program? Very easy to get lost if you want to get lost. I spent roughly 10% of 2014–16 living on Big Island. Good times!]
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All of Stanley Kubrick’s films, in one way or another, are revelations of the methods and actions of the secret occult groups that surround us and attempt to guide and control our lives. Entire books have been written about the gifted misanthrope’s esoteric oeuvre; hell, an entire documentary was made about how fucked up Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining is.
But Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick’s last film, is far and away the most overt on that front (and maybe it is just a “front”), showing what the so-called “elites” do with all their free time — orgies, secret ceremonies, murder, etc., etc. Key segments were even filmed inside and around a mansion owned by the Rothschilds, a European family dynasty long at the center of many a conspiracy theory or 33.
Legend has it that Kubrick was still tinkering with his film when he died, but Warner Brothers, the studio financing the film, has consistently denied that. They’ve always claimed that Kubrick finished the film, delivered final cut, then died nearly immediately.
Others, however, have claimed Kubrick’s cut of Eyes Wide Shut was butchered after his death, and many segments far more revealing about the hidden hand that steers the world’s rudder towards darkness were excised.
Thus, all the rumors about what really happened with EWS and Kubrick’s final cut are shrouded in mystery. But I can tell you a significant portion of what really happened for the first time in public. At least according to the four different people I mentioned above, who, as I said (far as I am aware), do not know each other.
Despite all the whispered gossip about secret societies and smothered disclosures, the primary motive for Kubrick’s murder is strictly a Hollywood business decision. It’s got nothing to do with the Rothschilds, the “Illuminati” or the elite. It may peripherally, I guess, but nada for any fear of exposure. The folks at the top have very little fear of that, believe me (whether this lack of concern is valid or hubris, I have no clue). They actually get off on showing things to your face that you don’t have the intelligence and/or courage to confront.
What actually happened with Eyes Wide Shut and Kubrick’s death was rooted in a draconian contractural agreement that every actor signed. It stated that in order to work with Kubrick, their first priority was to finish his film. They could take other gigs, BUT if there were reshoots or anything like that, they would have to return to Kubrick. No questions asked. Non-negotiable.
This essentially committed the film’s (then-married) stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman to Eyes Wide Shut until Kubrick delivered final cut. They were boxed in, and boxed out of other movies, other studios.
This was particularly true and tough for Tom Cruise, as he is in nearly every scene. Kidman, though also top-billed, had much less screen time and managed to make one other (occult!) movie, Practical Magic, with Sandra Bollocks, during this period.
But Cruise, the #1 movie star in the world at that point, was locked in. As the shoot went on and on and on — entire scenes reshot with different cast (Harvey Keitel replaced by Sidney Pollack; Jennifer Jason Leigh replaced by Marie Richardson); 90 takes of a guy walking through a door — Tom Cruise couldn’t make any other movies. Eyes Wide Shut was turning into the longest film shoot in Hollywood history, nearing two years and counting.
This became a big, big problem. The country’s #1 movie star couldn’t work with any other studio — Paramount was cooling its heels waiting on Cruise for John Woo’s Mission Impossible 2 — until Kubrick was done with him. And Kubrick wasn’t done with him.
Don’t take my word for it. Just look at Cruise’s IMDB. Big gap in his resume from 1996 (Jerry Maguire) all the way to 1999 (Eyes Wide Shut). It’s the longest hole in his career by far. BY FAR.
On and on it went. Finally, after delivering yet ANOTHER rough cut to Warner Brothers, Kubrick remained dissatisfied and refused to approve final cut, deciding to shoot even more material. Cruise and Kidman were still on-call and due to report back to England.
At that juncture, Warner Bros. had a rough cut that was certainly at a point where the film could be released. There was probably the added incentive that Kubrick was overplaying his limited hangout disclosure.
But above all, enough was enough: Cruise needed to get back in the marketplace. He could potentially deliver half a billion bucks a year in global ticket sales. Kubrick, after Eyes Wide Shut, the thinking went, would maybe make another movie — it had been a dozen years since Kubrick’s Vietnam epic Full Metal Jacket, let’s remember — but maybe not. Cruise, the box office needed NOW.
So they killed Kubrick.
Cruise was immediately freed up and quickly got slotted into a small but meaty role in P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia (Oscar nom for Best Supporting Actor, legit earned and deserved) so he had two movies released in 1999, then shot the not-good MI:2, and it was back off to the races.
So who did it? Who made the call? That I don’t know. The “King of Hollywood” at the time? Maybe the top L.A. money men at Warner Brothers or Paramount? The Scientologists? Cruise himself? No idea, and wouldn’t dare venture a guess.
But that’s the story. Now gauge your reaction. Eyes wide shut, hmmmm? That’s fine; there’s a lot of that going around.
