Iconic Actor Breaks Silence 32 Years Later: The Truth Behind the ’90s Best Western!

Half a year before Lawrence Kasdan would take on the famous tale of Sheriff Wyatt Earp in his relentless fight against the Clanton clan that peaked with the infamous shootout at the O.K. Corral, George Pan Cosmatos had already beaten him to the punch by dedicating a film to the same historic episode, a film that many consider the finest work of this director known mostly for B movies: Tombstone.

A Western with a Stellar Cast

Following a string of unsuccessful releases, unable to replicate the success of his blockbuster hit “Rambo II,” driven by an intensely fierce Sylvester Stallone, Pan Cosmatos surprisingly always managed to assemble impressive casts in his films, thus revisiting the Western genre with a stellar ensemble.

Kurt Russell portraying Wyatt Earp, alongside Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday; Michael Biehn, Billy Zane, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton, Powers Booth, Michael Rooker, Billy Bob Thornton, Charlton Heston, and even Stephen Lang, the future antagonist of James Cameron’s Avatar saga.

Over the years, first through video rental stores and then via DVD, Tombstone has been widely (re)discovered and has rightfully earned its status as an outstanding film. However, it is commonly said that it’s the best film of its late director, who passed away in 2005 at the age of 64, but behind the scenes, it’s notably rumored that Kurt Russell actually directed much of the film, though his name isn’t credited as such.

In an interview published in 2006 on the website True West, Kurt Russell, who was deeply committed to the film at the time, explained that he had been asked to direct the film after the original director (and screenwriter), Kevin Jarre, was fired after a month. While he didn’t feel entirely capable of replacing the departing filmmaker, he was ready to support George Pan Cosmatos behind the camera.

“I told George, ‘I’m going to give you a list of shots every night, and that’s how we’ll do it.’ I would go to George’s room, give him the list for the next day, that was the deal,” Russell shared about their collaboration during the shoot, which he described as quite positive.

“It was Kurt who was in charge”

While promoting the film Onslaught, Michael Biehn, who plays Johnny Ringo in the Western, spoke exclusively to Collider about the chaotic production of the film.

“Kevin [Jarre], who wrote it, took care of all the pre-production: the costumes and everything else. Pre-production is really about setting up the entire film, that is, defining what it will look like. They shot with Kevin for four weeks, then they fired him. I know why: because he wanted things his way, or not at all, and he wasn’t very cooperative. He had Kurt by his side, he had William Fraker, the Oscar-winning cinematographer, and he was surrounded by a plethora of exceptional actors. But he simply wouldn’t listen to anyone.”

He continued: “It was Kurt who was in charge, and they brought in a screenwriter. Over the weekend, they cut about 40 pages from the script [which was originally 142 pages], so everyone lost a lot from that. The Cowboys always felt shortchanged by this decision regarding some of the deleted scenes, because you never see the Cowboys unless they’re with the Earps, and it wasn’t like that in the script. They led a completely different life away from Tombstone. When I say ‘life,’ I mean two or three scenes.”

“I’ll never get over it”

Clearly, Russell did more than just provide shot lists to Cosmatos as he claimed in 2006. His involvement was much, much more significant. Fundamental, even.

Nevertheless, he has never been entirely comfortable discussing the behind-the-scenes creation of the film. In 2023, while promoting the Monsterverse Monarch: Legacy of Monsters series on Apple TV, Russell revealed about the film: “I promised someone not to talk about certain things publicly.”

And he added, speaking to the Hollywood Reporter: “The film isn’t as good as the script. I’ll never get over that. It could have been much better. It’s considered one of the great Westerns, right? It could have been considered one of the great films… The impact of Tombstone is very strong, and that’s good. It’s great. But could it have been much better? Yes.”