It’s one of the most beloved Westerns of all time, so it’s hard to imagine that Tombstone was almost a disaster, but according to Val Kilmer and other cast members, it was. Tombstone is a loose retelling of the historical gunfight at the O.K. Corral and the ensuing Earp Vendetta Ride. But at its heart, Tombstone is a story about the friendship between Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) and Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell).
That iconic friendship may never have come to life if it hadn’t been for the cast and crew rallying together to save a disastrous production that was troubled before, during, and after the shoot. Tombstone actually getting made was something of a miracle, as it turns out, and the problems started at the very top. Over the years, Tombstone actors Val Kilmer, Kurt Russell, Michael Biehn and others from the movie have spoken about the chaotic production that shaped all of their careers.
Kevin Jarre Was Fired As Tombstone’s Director
He Was Replaced By George Cosmatos
If one looks at its IMDb page, they’ll see that Tombstone technically has two directors listed: George P. Cosmatos and Kevin Jarre. It’s a curious quirk, but it makes sense if one knows the backstory. Kevin Jarre was the original director of Tombstone, as well as the movie’s writer. While a gifted writer – Tombstone actors have talked at length in interviews about how great the script was, especially the crisp dialogue – Kevin Jarre had no experience as a director and was in over his head.
In a 2012 interview from Wizard World Comic Con in Ohio, Val Kilmer was diplomatic about it, but it was clear the situation was not ideal. Kilmer was speaking about the making of Tombstone, but revealed it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. In a humorous moment that would make Doc Holliday proud, Kilmer related a funny anecdote about when he and costar Kurt Russell first realized something was wrong:
“It was lots of fun, but pretty early on we had drama, because the director was the writer. And he was a brilliant writer, but he had nothing left to direct with. He just didn’t have a flair for that job, so everybody knew–I remember the first shot, I was on a horse with Kurt–Kurt Russell, who was Wyatt Earp–yeah, I’m name-dropping…After the first shot, he turned to me like, ‘D-do you–do you–’ he was stuttering and he’s usually a very articulate guy. And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I think maybe we got a problem.’ The very first shot, where [Jaffe] put the camera was just off.”
He was ultimately replaced and the more experienced director George P. Cosmatos was brought on board to reshoot the movie, as Kilmer went on to explain. “But it all ultimately worked out in the end,” he said. “George Cosmatos–who had never done a picture with so much dialogue–he came in one weekend and took over and it all turned out.” While Cosmatos saved the production, the first five weeks of shooting – everything Kevin Jarre had shot, essentially – had to be scrapped as they were unusable. Even when Cosmatos came aboard, the shoot went anything but smoothly.
What Other Tombstone Actors Have Said About Shooting The Movie
The Cast Has Been Open About How Chaotic It Was
Kilmer isn’t the only actor who has talked about the troubles on the Tombstone set. Kurt Russell, whose Wyatt Earp was almost as iconic a portrayal as Val Kilmer’s Doc Holiday, has also spoken about it, though perhaps not as humorously. Earlier this year, Kurt Russell did a GQ interview where he sat down and discussed all his most iconic characters, reflecting on Tombstone now being considered one of the greatest Westerns of all time. When he got to Wyatt Earp, he spoke about the character, but then soon segued into what he remembered from the shoot.
“There’s been a lot of things written about Tombstone that are just so, books, I just look at them and [laughs]… People have no concept, even people who were working on the show don’t even know and never will. 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. The difficulties that we were able to figure out solutions to… You know, all that matters is that it got done, and the impact that the original screenplay promised…yeah. We got about 90% of that.”
Michael Biehn, who played outlaw Johnny Ringo, has famously been the most blunt and candid about the Tombstone shoot, coming right out and saying the things Val Kilmer and Kurt Russell diplomatically did not. Quite open about the problems they faced on set, he cleared up some rumors about Tombstone’s real director earlier this year on the Inside of You podcast with Michael Rosenbaum.
“Let me just say something about Tombstone , because I get so f’ing tired of people asking me if Kurt Russell directed the movie. 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. And then George Cosmatos takes over, and he’s kind of a visual guy and we shoot for another month or six weeks or something like that, and then they go into post. And when you go into post, you edit the movie and it was edited by a good editor.”
Sam Elliot, who played Virgil Earp in the movie, had perhaps the bluntest and most succinct assessment of the troubles they faced with Jarre at the helm. As he told EW back then: “I knew from the third day Kevin couldn’t direct. He wasn’t getting the shots he needed.” The problem, insiders recounted, was that he was trying to block and shoot it like an old John Ford Western when the script and the times demanded something fresher and more modern.
Tombstone’s Replacement Director George Cosmatos Presented A Different Problem
He Was Disliked By Just About Everyone On Set
Just because George Cosmatos had come aboard didn’t mean the troubles on the Tombstone production settled down any. Kevin Jarre was a writer, not a director, and was reportedly very uptight on set, not wanting a single bit of his dialogue to be changed but also not confident and decisive with the camera. As a writer, which is a uniquely solo endeavor, Jarre simply didn’t understand that shooting a movie is a collaborative endeavor. Across the board, Tombstone actors have praised Jarre’s sharp writing, speaking at length about his brilliant script that stood out from any other Western to that point–and, arguably, any Western since. He simply didn’t have the experience or the eye to be a director.
Across the board, Tombstone actors have praised Jarre’s sharp writing, speaking at length about his brilliant script that stood out from any other Western to that point–and, arguably, any Western since.
Cosmatos brought his own energy to the set, but it wasn’t necessarily an improvement. According to Biehn, Cosmatos rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Worse, he was apparently a problematic jerk to anyone who wasn’t above him in the shoot hierarchy. Thus, while he was friendly as could be with Russell, Kilmer, Elliot, Biehn, and the rest, he was dismissive and downright rude to extras and cast members, which didn’t sit right with Biehn. 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. I met him; I said five words to him the entire movie, and he was the director, he got credited for directing that movie. I went up to him, I said hello…and then the next day, I watched him directing, watched how he treated people and the next time he approached me, he said, “Michael,” and I said “Go f**k yourself.” Those were the only five words I ever said to him on set.”
It’s a bit shocking to think that’s how bad their relationship was, so quickly, but Biehn went on to explain how Cosmatos earned his enmity. “He would say things like, ‘Yeah, tell the extra with the big t*ts to take two steps forward,'” Bien recalled. “He was a guy that, if you were above him on the food chain, he’d try to kiss your ass. But if you were below him on the food chain, he’d treat you like s**t… Nobody liked him.” In the same interview, he recounted a time that Tombstone supporting actor Michael Rooker almost got into a physical fight with Cosmatos – that’s how mad the director had made Biehn’s fellow actor.
Rooker and Biehn weren’t the only feathers Cosmatos ruffled, either. Veteran cinematographer William A. Fraker was so incensed by Cosmatos’ back-breaking, abrasive style that he quit three times before being persuaded to come back to finish the movie. At one point, eyewitnesses recounted, the two men rammed their golf carts into each other before breaking out into a screaming match. In the days after Cosmatos came on board, 17 people either quit in disgust or were fired by the volatile new director. That wave of departures included both script supervisors and most of the art department.
In that same EW interview, production designer Catherine Hardwicke admitted Cosmatos was not an easy guy to work with, and those first few days were tumultuous. “He got everybody charged up,” she said. “He was demanding. Some people freaked out.”
The Tombstone Production Was Famously Troubled
The Director Swap Was Just The Tip Of The Iceberg
Even beyond the chaotic director troubles, the Tombstone shoot had major problems. Jarre’s script, while incredible, was far too long for a feature-length shoot. The problems with the script length were exacerbated by the fact the studio gave them a minuscule shooting schedule of just a few months. It would have been a Herculean task for any director, let alone a first-time director, and some involved with the production felt that it had set Jarre up for even further failure. ”From the beginning they allotted too little time to do this movie,” said actor Michael Rooker, who played Sherman McMasters. ”Kevin was trying to do it in the amount of time contracted for, which was way underestimated. No way in hell.”
When George Cosmatos came aboard and started cracking the whip, the production still had the problem of the script being too long. Russell and Kilmer reportedly made a deal with Cosmatos: he would focus on the directing, and they’d work together to wrangle the sprawling script into submission. It was an intense time; Kilmer even moved in with Russell temporarily so they could work on the script together when they were off set, along with producer James Jacks.
With Cosmatos insisting on historical accuracy, the wool suits they wore were so hot as to be safety hazards; the constant sweating of Doc Holliday in Tombstone is as much from Val Kilmer figuratively dying in the sweltering sun as it was from Doc literally dying of consumption.
They worked feverishly to salvage a compelling story from the necessary wreckage of Jarre’s great script, but not all the cast liked the results. “If I was given the screenplay as it is now, I’d have to pass on it,” said Sam Elliot just before the movie’s release. “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. “There was a great movie to be cut from the footage,” he said, ”and everyone did their best in a shortened postproduction period. The result is a good movie, but it isn’t the movie Kevin set out to make.”
With the time crunch they were under and tensions being high, tempers flared on the set when Cosmatos started pushing everyone. It didn’t help that they were shooting on location in Arizona in heat that soared to 110 degrees in the shade, and hotter in the sun. With Cosmatos insisting on historical accuracy, the wool suits they wore were so hot as to be safety hazards; the constant sweating of Doc Holliday in Tombstone is as much from Val Kilmer figuratively dying in the sweltering sun as it was from Doc literally dying of consumption.
There Was A Competing Wyatt Earp Movie With Kevin Costner
Costner Played Hardball With Studios Regarding Tombstone
Once they finally got past the tumultuous production and were into the editing phase, things still weren’t smooth sailing. At the time, Kevin Costner and a competing studio had their own movie, Wyatt Earp, coming out around the same time. That was part of the reason for Tombstone’s rushed schedule: With Costner’s considerable power in Hollywood at the time, producers and financiers knew that the only way Tombstone would get made was if they could hustle to get it cast and into production before Wyatt Earp. It worked: production on Wyatt Earp had to be delayed for half a year because Tombstone had taken all the period-accurate costuming available at the time.
Still, it was Costner himself that unintentionally led to that scenario. He had originally been set to play Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, but was unhappy with the lack of character development for the character. So he quit the project and joined Wyatt Earp instead, and, according to Kurt Russell (via True West Magazine), blocked almost every major studio from financing and distributing Jarre’s competing Western. “I got a phone call, and it was just before Val was going to come on—we had to have a release,” Russell revealed. “Costner had shut down all avenues of release for the picture except for Disney, except for Buena Vista. …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 the Tombstone production scrambling. Though it finally got made, it’s strange to look back and think that the beloved Western almost never saw the light of day and Val Kilmer’s iconic portrayal of Doc Holliday almost never was. Considering what they had to overcome to get it to theaters, Kilmer, Kurt Russell and the rest of the cast and crew deserve a lot of credit for rallying together and finally getting Tombstone finished. Looking back on its impact and legacy, it’s fair to say those three nightmarish months were worth it.