Why Kevin Costner Tried To Sabotage Tombstone (& He Nearly Succeeded)
Kevin Costner tried to sabotage Wyatt Earp biopic Tombstone as it was about to start filming, fearing it would conflict with one of his projects.
- Kevin Costner tried to sabotage the making and distribution of Tombstone to protect his own Wyatt Earp movie.
- Tombstone, despite facing competition and limited promotion, became a surprise success both financially and critically.
- Wyatt Earp, on the other hand, struggled to recoup its budget and received lukewarm reviews due to its slow-paced and lifeless portrayal of the iconic figure.
Kevin Costner exercised his considerable muscle in Hollywood to sabotage Tombstone before it could get made, and he came very close to succeeding. Westerns were essentially a dead genre by the beginning of the ’80s, but over the years, they’ve had brief bursts of activity. The start of the ’90s gave fans of the genre a treat with both Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven and Tombstone. The latter film was a surprise hit in 1993, and aside from being a great movie, features an incredible ensemble cast that includes Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, Bill Paxton and many more.
Every once in a while in Hollywood, two movies emerge that share the same basic premise, and it’s a race to see which wins at the box office. A recent example would be 2013’s competing “Die Hard in the White House” movies Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down, where the former won the fight and spawned a franchise. Tombstone itself faced competition from Wyatt Earp, an epic retelling of Earp’s entire life that also featured an impressive cast consisting of Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman and others. Costner didn’t consider the rivalry between the two movies very friendly, however.
Kevin Costner Tried To Kill Tombstone To Save His Own Wyatt Earp Movie
Tombstone was written by Kevin Jarre, and was originally developed with Costner in mind to play Earp. However, the star eventually exited the movie as he felt the story should focus on Earp, while Jarre’s script was more of an ensemble. Costner then went on to develop his own Wyatt Earp project while the Tombstone screenplay landed in Russell’s lap. The actor was so taken by the material – dubbing it a “Western Godfather” in interviews – that he went out and got the money to fund it himself.
As he recounted to True West in 2006, just as the film was gearing up to shoot, he heard that Costner had been going to every major studio to convince them not
This came with the concession that Willem Dafoe, who was in line to play Doc Holliday, had to be replaced by Val Kilmer. While Dafoe would have no doubt delivered an excellent performance, this recasting worked in the movie’s favor, as Kilmer delivered possibly his best-ever performance as Doc. Despite his tactics to sabotage Tombstone, Russell never held a grudge against Costner, stating “He was powerful enough at the time, which I always respected. I thought it was good hardball.”
Tombstone Vs Wyatt Earp: Which Biopic Is Best?
