Kurt Russell Says ‘Tombstone’ Should Have Been Even Better, Hollywood Dysfunction Resulted in 22 Pages of Script Being Cut

Actor Kurt Russell revealed this week that his 90s Western hit “Tombstone” could have been considered one of the greatest films of all time had changes not been made to the original screenplay.

Russell was promoting his new Apple TV streaming show, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” and his Paramount+ neo-Western, “The Madison,” which led to a discussion about the cult classic movie.

“He’s well aware of how beloved his Wyatt Earp-led tale is to generations of people,” the article from The Hollywood Reporter read. “But being so close to it, he still can’t shake the potential that Kevin Jarre’s original screenplay had.”

“In the past, he’s compared the script’s upside to that of The Godfather, as has his co-star Stephen Lang,” the story continued. “But due to a director change mid-production and subsequent budgetary problems that forced Russell to shed 22 pages of that vaunted screenplay, Tombstone will forever be his ‘one that got away.’”

As Russell, 74, was questioned about the film’s potential, he lamented how epic the original screenplay was compared to the final product.

“That’s because of the screenplay. The movie is not as good as the screenplay,” he said.

When asked if he had come to terms with this, Russell said various changes and budget issues prevented it from being one of the greatest films ever made.

“I’ll never make peace with that,” he replied. “It could have been way better. It’s considered one of the great Westerns, right? It could have been considered one of the great movies. It had a great cast, but it had fabulous writing.”

“And for a lot of different reasons, the money got burned through, and the director thing didn’t work out,” Russell continued. “So we had to go about it differently, and we got what we made. The impact of Tombstone is very strong, and that’s nice. That’s great. But could it have been a lot better? Yes.”

“The Madison,” which was originally conceived as a spinoff to the hit Paramount show “Yellowstone” — both created by Taylor Sheridan — follows a New York City family in the Madison River Valley of central Montana.

The early trailers reportedly teased a “sentimental story” which serves as a departure from Sheridan’s manly Westerns of the past.

“Russell revealed that the story will be told from a woman’s perspective — and writing for women is one of Sheridan’s biggest weaknesses, according to some viewers,” Slash Film reported.

“I think that it’s a very different show for Taylor in that it’s a very female-gaze-oriented show,” Russell added. “And I think it’s extremely well written, it was fun to play. It was really fun to do. I just had a good time.”

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