There is no doubt that the ’60s were something of a golden era for Western cinema. However, a special movie came out during the ’90s. While Tombstone didn’t revive the Western genre, it was a welcome surprise as it harkened back to the time and place it was set in. Its historical accuracy and authenticity made it a huge hit. However, this is only scratching the surface of the movie’s intriguing details. So much happened behind the scenes, it’s difficult to believe that Tombstone ended up being as good as it was. Join us as we explore some of the most fascinating things about Tombstone that the average movie-goer might not know about.
Sam Elliott Fought The Director?
Director George P. Cosmatos and Sam Elliott nearly got into a fight. “We had our moment right at the beginning,” he said. “I remember George coming up to me…sticking his nose right in my face. And he said, ‘Am I gonna have trouble with you?’”
So Elliot “just looked him right back in the eye and said, ‘I don’t know, am I gonna have trouble with you?’ And he just laughed and said, ‘Ah, we’re gonna get along fine.’”
Another plot line that stayed true to history was the evergrowing romance between Wyatt Earp and Josephine Marcus. Many viewers thought it was strange for their horse-racing scene to end so abruptly.
However, there’s a good reason for this. In the original cut, the two characters were supposed to have a passionate love scene together. However, Cosmatos ultimately decided not to include it in the story and left it on the cutting room floor.
There is no doubt that one of most heavily debated moments of the movie is when Doc Holliday shoots Michael Biehn’s character, Johnny Ringo. Despite the backlash, Biehn supported the decision.
“I wanted him to shoot me!” he said. “Well, I always thought Johnny Ringo had a little bit of a ‘suicide by police’ mentality.” Sam Elliott also loved the moment. “That thing was just incredible,” he said. “They’re both so good, and you just know this moment is coming all the way through the film.”
When producers fired Kevin Jarre from Tombstone, it took a bit of time before they hired Cosmatos as his replacement. As a result, Kurt Russell took it upon himself to act as the spiritual director of the project.
During this time, he sat down with writers and rewrote large parts of the script. Many have speculated that Kurt did a lot of the directorial work even after the studio brought Cosmatos onto the project.
While many actors know how to stay in character both on and off set, one cast member from Tombstone took things to another level. Stephen Lang played the crazy outlaw Ike Clanton, who seems to be drunk during most of his scenes.
However, it is believed that Lang actually was inebriated in order to bring his character to life. Costmatos attested to this claim, confirming that Lang did drink a lot in between takes in service of his character.
It makes sense that Kurt Russell and Val Kilmer developed something of bromance during their time on set. After all, they did play real-life buddies, Wyatt Earp, and Doc Holliday.
However, the dynamic duo carried on their friendship after filming wrapped, and it was in a pretty strange way. When everything was said and done, one bought the other a piece of property in Tombstone, Arizona, while the other bought a grave slot for their friend.
Val Kilmer claimed that Bob Dylan is a huge fan of Tombstone. “Bob Dylan [was] obsessed with Tombstone,” Kilmer said.
“So he came over to my hotel. I was like, ‘Where are you? I’ll come over.’ And he said, ‘No, I’ll be right there.’ So we sat and eventually he said ‘Ain’t you gonna say anything about that movie?’ I was so star struck myself. He wasn’t star-struck, but he was just really, really into that movie. It was very flattering.”
As soon as George P. Cosmatos joined the set and began working with the cast, everyone involved instantly felt the change in direction. Cosmatos’s style was very demanding and this level of intensity didn’t sit well with many people on set.
It is believed that Cosmatos had a number of conflicts with cinematographer William Fraker. “He was a whole other animal,” Sam Elliott said. Speaking of Sam Elliott, the actor who played Virgil Earp had his own bone to pick with Cosmatos…
While many know that filmmaker George P. Cosmatos directed Tombstone, he wasn’t originally the man to helm the project. It was actually supposed to be Kevin Jarre’s directorial debut.
Jarre, of course, penned the script and was signed up to direct the movie as well. However, it is revealed that he was overwhelmed by the scale of the project and quickly fell behind schedule. Ultimately, producer Andrew Vajna fired Jarre and replaced him with George P. Cosmatos.
When producers fired Kevin Jarre from Tombstone, many of the cast members were upset by the decision; most notably, Michael Biehn. “It was sad for me,” he said.
“I liked Kevin a lot. He was the one that wrote the script. He really wanted that script to be the way he wanted it to be.” In fact, Biehn was so disheartened by Jarre’s firing that he was very close to leaving the project during the early stages of production.
While Robert Mitchum had been cast, only to take a step back after one day of filming, there were many other famous actors who missed out on big roles. For example, the producers desperately wanted Willem Dafoe to play Doc Holliday.
However, after starring in the controversial The Last Temptation of Christ, Buena Vista refused to cast him in the role. Other actors who nearly landed a role in Tombstone included Mickey Rourke and Richard Gere.
While Val Kilmer portrayed Doc Holliday as a decent guy, it was believed that the real life “Doc” was a very different person. Many historians agree that Holliday, in reality, was a ruthless character, who engaged in numerous clandestine activities.
One researcher claimed he “sliced open a man’s stomach when the man refused to follow the [gambling] rules.” Ultimately, Holliday survived the gunfight at the OK Corral and ended up dying from tuberculosis at 37.
It turns out that the Italian Stallion himself, Rocky Balboa, was the man responsible for getting George P. Cosmatos the role of director in the first place.
Sylvester Stallone reportedly recommended Cosmatos as a replacement for Kevin Jarre after working with him on movies such as Rambo: First Blood Part II and Cobra. In fact, Frank Stallone, who is Sly’s brother, had a cameo role in the movie as a man by the name of Ed Bailey.
In order to keep in line with the theme of authenticity and historical accuracy, Cosmatos made sure that all of the actors who played characters with mustaches actually grew real ones.
However, it turns out that this was Kevin Jarre’s idea. “Everyone just grew a mustache,” Michael Biehn said. “When it comes down to it, this goes back to Kevin Jarre…He wanted them to curl up on the end..If you grow a mustache…long enough, you have to use wax on the end of it.”
Casual fans might forget that Billy Bob Thornton had a minor role in Tombstone. He plays a character called Johnny Tyler, a card dealer who pushes people around.
There’s a scene in which Wyatt approaches Tyler and throws him out of the saloon. However, what many probably don’t realize is that Billy Bob Thornton actually ad-libbed all of his lines. While many have praised the script, Cosmatos simply told Thornton to make stuff up and “be a bully.”
There is a very strange pop culture link between Doc Holliday and the caped crusader himself, Batman. A number of actors have played both characters over the year. Of course, it was the legendary Adam West who originally played the Dark Knight in his own series.
Many years later, Val Kilmer would also don the black cape in the 90s movie Batman Forever. However, both actors also played Doc Holliday – Kilmer playing the role in Tombstone, and West playing the character on TV.
When you have a cast of Hollywood A-Listers as big as Tombstone‘s, this should be enough guarantee box office success. Michael Biehn, who was just one of the many stars involved, described Tombstone as a bubble gum Western due to its star-studded cast.
“It had great characters. And it had great actors to play them,” he said. “Kurt was great. I don’t think Val has been better…You have Sam Elliott, you have Bill Paxton…They are [celebrities], but they fit into this world.”
Many of the cast members have heavily praised Kevin Jarre’s script, describing it as one of the best they ever read. According to Val Kilmer, it was the classic line “I’m your huckleberry” that won him over.
He claimed that Jarre didn’t really know how he came up with the line. “But I loved it,” Kilmer said. “It just seemed to be the odd, perfect statement for the scene – ‘You’ve met your match.’” It could allude to Huckleberry Finn.
While the cast members of Tombstone were excited about Kevin Jarre’s vision, there is no denying that George P. Cosmatos struck gold with his focus on historical accuracy.
He wanted to make sure that everything, from the way people talked and the costumes, to the settings and probs, was authentic and paid homage to the time it was set in. Even actors such as Val Kilmer strived for authenticity, perfecting his Southern Aristocrat accent for the role.
Kilmer Killed It During The Death Scene
Staying true to the real-life events, Val Kilmer shot the scene of Doc Holliday succumbing to his tuberculosis at the end of the movie.
In order to make the scene as realistic as possible, Kilmer decided to lie on top of a sheet of ice in order to make himself as uncomfortable as possible and shiver uncontrollably. In the same scene, Holliday says the line “that’s funny,” because he believed he would die in battle, not from his illness.
