Corral and the ensuing Earp Vendetta Ride.
It’s a curious quirk, but it makes sense if one knows the backstory.
Kevin Jarre was the original director ofTombstone, as well as the movie’s writer.
Kilmer was speaking about the making of Tombstone, but revealed it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.
And he was a brilliant writer, but he had nothing left to direct with.
And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I think maybe we got a problem.’
Custom image by Yeider Chacon
The very first shot, where [Jaffe] put the camera was just off."
“But it all ultimately worked out in the end,” he said.
Even when Cosmatos came aboard, the shoot went anything but smoothly.
Tombstone chronicles legendary marshal Wyatt Earp and his brothers as they seek fortune in a prosperous mining town. Forced to confront a gang threatening the community, Earp joins forces with the infamous Doc Holliday, highlighting a tense battle between lawmen and outlaws in the American West.
Every movie, every show is difficult to do, it’s generally going to be a collaboration.
Trust is either going to be found or earned or not.
Like any other movie, it’s a miracle it gets made.
Finding solutions to problems was a constant on Tombstone.
We got about 90% of that."
Kurt Russell did not direct the movie, okay?
Kurt Russell was responsible for getting the movie off the ground.
I never would have played Johnny Ringo if it wasn’t for Kurt Russell…
But it was directed by, kind of a committee.
You know, we talked about George Cosmatos, who came in to replace Kevin Jarre.
So Kevin Jarre shoots five weeks, they throw all that stuff away.
As he toldEWback then: “I knew from the third day Kevin couldn’t direct.
He wasn’t getting the shots he needed.”
He simply didn’t have the experience or the eye to be a director.
Cosmatos brought his own energy to the set, but it wasn’t necessarily an improvement.
The veteran actor has no problems telling people exactly what he thought and still thinks of the late Cosmatos.
“George Cosmatos was an idiot.
[He] was brought in and nobody really liked him.
This is the truth.
Those were the only five words I ever said to him on set.”
Prior toTombstone, George Cosmatos' best-known work was 1985’sRambo: First Blood Part II.
That wave of departures included both script supervisors and most of the art department.
“He got everybody charged up,” she said.
“He was demanding.
Some people freaked out.”
Kevin was trying to do it in the amount of time contracted for, which was way underestimated.
No way in hell.
“They took 29 pages out of it, eliminated the connective tissue, took the character development out.
Jacks himself admitted it wasn’t the movie they wanted.
The result is a good movie, but it isnt the movie Kevin set out to make.
Looking back years later, there’s one clear victor and it’s not even close.
…He was powerful enough at the time, which I always respected.
I thought it was good hardball.
It might have been hardball, but it left theTombstoneproduction scrambling.
