I Really Hope This Story About Kurt Russell's Tombstone Cameo Plan For Kevin Costner Is True
There were two rival films about the famed lawman, Tombstone and Wyatt Earp. There is a report that Kurt Russell offered Kevin Costner a cameo in his movie. There are occasionally two Hollywood blockbusters with the same basic idea that come out in the same year. In 1998, Deep Impact and Armageddon faced off, and in 2013, Olympus Has Fallen faced off against White House Down. Despite not being out in the same year, Wyatt Earp and Tombstone were vying for the same readership.
Tombstone starred Kurt Russell, who also purportedly ghost-directed the film. He was supported by an amazing ensemble that includes Val Kilmer, Sam Elliott, and Bill Paxton. Kevin Costner's portrayal of Wyatt Earp encompassed the entirety of Earp's existence, even though the movie only focused on a significant portion of it. The latter was released six months after Tombstone, but Russell's film was an unexpected hit, and Costner's epic, though it too had a strong cast, was a box office bomb.
Kevin Costner would return the favor when Kurt Russell asked him to make a cameo in Tombstone.
Kevin Costner was to play a gunfighter shot down by Earp in Tombstone, and Kurt Russell suggested that Costner dress similarly for his Wyatt Earp film.
With Wyatt Earp, Costner was making his most of his star power, therefore his biopic had a much bigger budget than Tombstone's. It was well known that Costner was not pleased that Tombstone had commenced production and would be competing with his feature; in fact, the 1993 filming schedule for both movies coincided. As a means of defusing tensions between two projects, Russell called up Costner and offered him an uncredited cameo in Tombstone, according to former Warner Brothers veteran Ethan Dettenmaier (via Brigade-Radio-One).
Russell suggested that in Costner's Wyatt Earp film, Russell would play a gunfighter who was shot down by Earp at Tombstone. This might have been an amusing inside joke that suggested the Tombstone vs. Wyatt Earp conflict wasn't as serious as it seemed to the general public. But Dettenmaier claims that Costner rejected the offer right away.
At every opportunity, Kevin Costner attempted to undermine Tombstone.
Tombstone's path to the big screen was convoluted; Costner had previously committed to the role of Earp. The script, written by the late Kevin Jarre, was well received, but Costner eventually withdrew from the film because he believed it should follow Earp's entire life, not just his time in Tombstone. As the actor left to concentrate on Wyatt Earp with director Lawrence Kasdan, Kurt Russell received the screenplay for Tombstone after it was circulated around Hollywood. The actor personally went out to obtain the funding because he was so enthralled with the tale.
In 2006, Russell told True West about Costner's attempt to undermine his Tombstone movie by threatening to have the major studios not distribute it. Because of Costner's celebrity, most of them cooperated. Essentially, Costner closed down most of the avenues for Tombstone's production, but happily, Disney and Buena Vista disregarded the actor's demand. Dettenmaier further asserts that the Wyatt Earp crew dug through every Western movie artifact and costume they could locate, making sure Tombstone couldn't utilize them.
Even with Costner's best efforts, Tombstone made $55 million worldwide and debuted six months before Wyatt Earp (via The Numbers). There is no shortage of memorable sequences, lines of speech, and acting in this film, which is currently regarded as one of the best Westerns ever made. Conversely, Costner's stolid, lumbering Wyatt Earp was unable to recover its $63 million budget and is presently only brought up in conversations about its competition with Tombstone.
Is Kurt Russell Really Planning a Tombstone Cameo?
This makes Costner's choice to pass sad, if Russell's cameo plan for him in Tombstone is correct. It might have demonstrated that, despite the rivalry between the productions, there remained camaraderie behind the scenes. Russell, for his part, felt Costner had every right to defend Wyatt Earp, so he didn't hold it against him when he tried to stop Tombstone. Unfortunately, because even Ethan Dettenmaier begins his story with "I've heard," the Russell/Costner Tombstone pitch needs to be regarded with caution.
This indicates that the tale is not based on direct knowledge and may even be fictitious. Nevertheless, that seems like the kind of thing Russell would do, and if it had actually happened, it would have been a fantastic easter egg. Seeing as how Russell's Wyatt Earp shot him would have come back to haunt him in the event that his movie bombed, Costner might have been concerned about the message this Tombstone appearance would send. In any event, this turned out to be true, so he ought to have just gotten dressed with Russell and gone out to enjoy himself.
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