30 years ago these two westerns played and only one was left standing

Sunset on a deserted street in the Far West. Face to face, the two Westerns face each other, and both feature a gunslinger-turned-lawman as their protagonist: Wyatt Earp, a mythical character of the American West, as well as Buffalo Bill or Billy the Kid. The first one is called Tombstone and the second one is… Wyatt Earp, actually. problem? They are competitors!

Kevin has a revelation

It all starts with Tombstone, is a project led by director-screenwriter Kevin Jarry, with Kevin Costner in the star role: gunslinger-turned-lawman Wyatt Earp, a mythical character of the American West, as well as “Buffalo”. Billy or Billy the Kid.

But in the meantime, Costner no longer wants the story of settling scores at the OK Corral, but the life of Wyatt Earp from his youth to the end. So he planted Jarre and his script and hired Lawrence Kasdan to make Wyatt Earp, another Western, but some of which would be shared by Tombstone. Jarre does not give up and looks for another star to portray the famous shooter: Kurt Russell.

“We needed a ghost director”

Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott and Bill Paxton round out the cast, and filming begins under the direction of Kevin Jarry, a screenwriter inexperienced in directing, but supported by the film’s star, Kurt Russell. But after a month, Zhar was late and somewhat overwhelmed by the scope of the project, he had to be replaced. The rest Russell says:

“We needed a ghost director. They wanted me to direct the movie. I said, ‘I’ll do it, but I don’t want my name on it.’ All that was left was to find someone to nominate, and Russell, who had recently created Tango & Cash with Stallone, called a friend and suggested George Pan Cosmatos:

I called Sly and told him I needed a boy. Sly did the same thing in Rambo 2 with George. That’s why I said to Giorgi: “As long as you are alive, Giorgi, I won’t say anything.”

Cosmatos, who died in 2005, therefore appeared to be Kurt Russell’s candidate. And filming resumed. We then tell him that 20 pages is too much and Russell decides to cut some of his scenes so as not to punish the other actors.

Kevin Costner subverts Tombstone

Besides behind the scenes, Costner is still working on his Wyatt Earp, a three-hour-plus mural, and doesn’t want to pull the rug out from under Tombstone. According to legend, the actor reserves the Western costumes for his film in Hollywood and takes them from Tombstone.

more certain After he publicly stated By Russell, Costner is using his power at the time—he’s been omnipotent since Dances With Wolves, The Bodyguard, and Perfect World—so that no distributor will release Tombstone.

Russell then approached the only distributor still available: Buena Vista Pictures (a Disney subsidiary). The studio agrees, but doesn’t really know how to market the film, and plans to release it on December 25 opposite The Grumpy or Philadelphia with Tom Hanks. With a budget of 25 million dollars, the film made 73.2 million dollars and became a success.

Wyatt Earp, released six months later on June 24, 1994, grossed 56 million against an explosive budget of 63 million. A complete failure for Costner, who turned to a new major project: Waterworld, which this time would be a huge success.