In the battle of the western biopics, does Tombstone or Wyatt Earp emerge victorious? Wyatt Earp is an Old West lawman who became immortalized after the firefight at the O.K. Corral. His story had been told many times before in movies like My Darling Clementine, Gunfight At The O.K. Corral and Hour Of The Gun, starring James Garner (The Great Escape). There’s a bizarre phenomenon that happens in Hollywood from time to time when two movies with eerily similar premises enter production around the same time.
This happened with James Cameron’s The Abyss and George P. Cosmatos Leviathan, Dante’s Peak and Volcano and most recently, Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down. It happened again with Tombstone and Wyatt Earp, two competing projects centered around the life of the legendary marshal. Both featured fantastic casts and unique takes on Earp’s life, but which biopic was the best?
The development of Tombstone and Wyatt Earp are hopelessly intertwined, with the former starting life as a vehicle for Kevin Costner. The star had scored a major success with Dances With Wolves so it seemed like a natural project, but he left following disagreements with screenwriter Kevin Jarre. Jarre’s script was more of an ensemble piece, giving joint focus to characters like Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers, but Costner wanted it centered on Wyatt. Jarre then shopped the script around with Kurt Russell (The Thing) loving it. He later revealed Costner was less than happy with the rival movie and closed off nearly every avenue for Russell to get it financed.