Kilmer plays porn superstar John Holmes

Val Kilmer isn't claiming he's never watched a porn movie. He's just saying he's never seen a porn movie featuring John Holmes, the legendary actor he plays in "Wonderland," a dark look at a drug addict's spiral out of control and into some extremely bloody business.

"I guess that was a little before my time,'' says Kilmer, soaking up some poolside sun at a midtown hotel. Aside from the actor and the reporter, there's only one other couple taking advantage of the pool-perfect weather during last month's Toronto International Film Festival, and as the conversation continues, they move closer and closer until they are eavesdropping. Whether it is because they have recognized the man behind the sunglasses as the onetime Batman or for his portrayal of another '70s-era hedonist, Jim Morrison, in "The Doors" or because the words ``sex,'' ``porn,'' ``cocaine,'' ``weed'' and ``murder'' are being thrown around casually and loudly is up for debate.

"I watched that documentary about Holmes'' (``Wadd: The Life and Times of John C. Holmes''), says Kilmer, "and I read a lot of the news stories about the Wonderland killings, but I didn't feel the need to watch any of his movies. I'm not really that big a fan of bad acting. Bad actors, sure, but not bad acting. I respect the craft too much to see it being attempted by someone who's just there because nature smiled on him in some weird way."

The weird way was below the waist, where Holmes was blessed, or cursed, depending on your perspective, with a freakishly large body part, which made him stand out in the days when filmed pornography was making its way out of private viewing booths and onto actual movie screens. A prologue to "Wonderland" claims Holmes was porn's first real star, which isn't true; the late Linda Lovelace or Marilyn Chambers could probably claim that dubious title.

Yet Holmes, who died of AIDS-related illness in 1988, with his ridiculous perm and dig-me mustache came to represent the wah-wah, bang-bang cheesiness of the '70s to such an extent that his rise to infamy was fictionally immortalized in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Boogie Nights," in which Mark Wahlberg played a character clearly based on the bad boy.

"I was the actor (director James) Cox wanted for the role, but I turned it down," says Kilmer of ``Wonderland.'' "The idea of playing a porn star didn't appeal to me in the slightest. But then a lot of people I really trusted-Michael Mann, Bobby De Niro, Dominick Dunne and Robert Evans-looked at the script and said I should reconsider. So I took a second look, and talked to James, and I got what he was trying to do."

"Wonderland" begins after Holmes' career is essentially over; in the pre-Viagra era, his cocaine addiction had left him unable to do what had made him famous. He has, according to Kilmer, turned himself ``into a different kind of hustler, one of those guys who can rip you off and do you wrong and still charm his way back into your good graces.'' This means he is still able to maintain the affection of his teenage girlfriend, played by "Blue Crush" star Kate Bosworth; his estranged, straight-arrow wife, played by Lisa Kudrow; and even the mid-level drug dealers played by Josh Lucas, Tom Blake Nelson and Dylan McDermott, who keep Holmes around as a kind of conversation piece patsy.

They plot to use the strung-out Holmes to help them rip off immigrant Los Angeles club owner and crime figure Eddie Nash, then considered one of the scariest, most ruthless men in Los Angeles. Their scheme would culminate in a quadruple-murder payback that the newspapers reported as the most brutal since the Manson murders. Holmes' involvement in the murders has never been resolved, and director Cox has chosen to let viewers draw their own conclusions while presenting multiple, gruesome scenarios.

"Whatever I believe really happened that night is irrelevant," says Kilmer, 43. "The only people who really know are dead. The movie just serves up the facts and some informed speculation, and lets the audience decide. But it's not really a murder mystery; it's a story of a master hustler, a guy who was very smart and calculating, who would do just about anything to get what he wanted."

"He was one of those guys who was able to believe his own lies, he was so convincing…. People I talked to who hung with him said he could be charming, you know? I thought that could really be interesting to play."

That may be because while Kilmer has been called lots of things, charming is not usually one of them. Joel Schumacher, who directed Kilmer in 1995's "Batman Forever," says that experience persuaded him to institute a life-is-too-short rule, to prevent him from ever again working with some he could not personally abide. Martin Bregman, the veteran producer of 1993's "The Real McCoy," says that Kilmer was the most unlikable actor he ever worked with in three decades of filmmaking.

But directors like Oliver Stone and Michael Mann, on the short list of directors who have rehired him, say that Kilmer's passion and self-confidence get easily mistaken for arrogance and ego.

"He believes he knows what will make every scene better," says Stone, who cast Kilmer as Phillip II, Alexander the Great's father, in his upcoming biography of Alexander. "Sometimes he's right, sometimes he's wrong, but he's worth listening to."

"He's just a brilliant actor," says Robert Evans, who produced "The Saint," in which Kilmer played the suave, honorable thief first played by Roger Moore in a syndicated TV series. "I had to fight to get the guys with the money to cast him, but he was perfect for the part, and he takes everything he does seriously, maybe too seriously sometimes."

"This is my first movie, and he's made how many?" asks "Wonderland" director Cox. "I would have been crazy not to take his input seriously. He has great ideas. Sure, we'd disagree, and obviously he has more clout than I do. But I think in the end, we respected each other, and I'd make another movie with him in a minute."

"I try not to let all that negativity affect me anymore," says Kilmer, who doesn't have time to worry too much.

His latest projects include the independent film "Blind Horizon," a thriller in which he costars with Sam Shepard.

The film should be released next year, along with "Delgo," an animated fantasy adventure to which he lent his voice; "Spartan," an original drama about the kidnapping of a politician written and directed by David Mamet, whom Kilmer describes as beyond brilliant; "Stateside," in which he plays an investigator trying to find out why a young Marine has gone AWOL; "Mindhunters," an action thriller that marks the return of director Renny Harlin; Stone's "Alexander," playing, to his great amusement, star Colin Farrell's father; and a Michael Mann action drama starring Tom Cruise.

In December, Kilmer follows "Wonderland" with "The Missing," a suspenseful Western directed by Ron Howard and starring Cate Blanchett, who says any trepidation she had about working with Kilmer and the notoriously prickly Tommy Lee Jones "was to my great relief, completely unfounded."

"I've sure been busy for a guy people allegedly can't stand," says Kilmer. "At the end of the day, I have to live with myself. And so far, I'm doing OK."