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Oct 16, 2024

We Have Kurt Russell to Thank for Saving 'Tombstone' From Disaster

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Tombstone might be considered one of the greatest Westerns ever put on screen, but if you've read anything about the making of the film, it's a miracle it turned out as good as it did. Tombstone was hit with a number of setbacks during production, including Kevin Costner — who passed on starring in Tombstone — attempting to launch his own rival Western with Wyatt Earp, which led studios to be rather bullish on distributing it. The biggest roadblock concerned a shift in directors, as Kevin Jarre originally was set to write and direct Tombstone. Jarre wound up overwhelmed by the directorial duties and withdrew, with George P. Cosmatos taking his place.

This led to its own set of problems, as Cosmatos reportedly rubbed nearly everyone the wrong way. Michael Biehn, who plays the outlaw Johnny Ringo, almost quit Tombstone because he felt that Cosmatos "had no understanding or appreciation of the screenplay". But according to Val Kilmer, one man did appreciate Jarre's original work: Kurt Russell. In fact, Kilmer would go on to credit Russell with shaping Tombstone's story into its final form, and even said he was a major force in saving the film.

Over the years, Russell has been credited with being Tombstone's saving grace in one way or another. The biggest myth is that he actually directed the film instead of Cosmatos. Russell was fairly diplomatic about this, pointing to the collaborative nature of film during a GQ interview, while Biehn offered a far blunter response when he appeared on Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You Podcast: "Kurt Russell did not direct the movie, okay? Kurt Russell was responsible for getting the movie off the ground. I never would have played Johnny Ringo if it wasn't for Kurt Russell... But it was directed by, kind of a committee." The element that Russell can take credit for is working on Jarre's original script, which presented its own problems.

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Chief among those problems was the fact that Jarre's script was extremely sprawling, and would never have fit within Tombstone's allotted production time. Russell and Kilmer struck a deal with Cosmatos: if he handled the directorial efforts, they'd refine the script to fit the production timeline. Russell wound up focusing the film on the relationship between Wyatt Earp, who he played, and Kilmer's Doc Holiday, and the story was far stronger for it. One of the best scenes in Tombstone happens when Doc Holliday — who's dying of consumption — comes to support Earp in his showdown with Ringo. When Sherman McMasters (Michael Rooker) asks him why he's risking his life, Doc says "Wyatt Earp is my friend". Sherman scoffs that he has a lot of friends, to which Doc replies: "I don't." That simple, yet powerful exchange adds emotional weight to the final showdown, and proves Russell's skills as a writer.

Russell's storytelling skills helped weather the turbulent production of Tombstone, especially when it came to the cast and crew's interactions with Cosmatos. Biehn reportedly only said five words to him during filming, and it's safe to say that he wasn't Cosmatos' biggest fan. Cinematographer William A. Fraker apparently quit a total of three times; he wasn't the only one, 17 people reportedly wound up departing Tombstone's production after Cosmatos took the director's chair. Through it all, Kilmer would credit Russell with being a guiding force in an Entertainment Weekly article that detailed the chaotic production:

”The shoot (wasn’t tough) because Kurt is a very straight-ahead kind of guy with amazing energy... He’s very good about structure and a character’s function. He’ll discuss and anticipate things. We had so many powerful actors, it could easily have become a feeding frenzy of sharks going for their own.”

Russell would bring that same energy to other productions, including Stargate, but the fact that he was able to metaphorically whip Tombstone into its final form is nothing short of impressive. It also makes his final gift to Kilmer after Tombstone wrapped all the more darkly hilarious in context — if someone credited me with saving a major Hollywood production, I would give them a gift other than a plot of land.

Tombstone is currently available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

WATCH ON HULU

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'Wyatt Earp' and 'Tombstone' were released around the same time in the early ‘90s and told much the same story.

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