Todd Terwilliger

Tombstone
Originally uploaded by kenny42952

As is my wont during a slow work day, I take to the labyrinthine tubes of the internet in search of nothing in particular. Today that search took me to an interview with Kurt Russell from the October 2006 issue of True West magazine.

The interesting thing about the interview is that in it, Russell says the he actually directed Tombstone. From the interview:

…I backed the director; the director got fired, so we brought in a guy to be a ghost director. They wanted me to take over the movie. I said, “I’ll do it, but I don’t want to put my name on it. I don’t want to be the guy.”
I said to George [Cosmatos], “I’m going to give you a shot list every night, and that’s what’s going to be.” I’d go to George’s room, give him the shot list for the next day, that was the deal. “George I don’t want any arguments. This is what it is. This is what the job is.”
“Yeah, absolutely.”
I got him from Sly Stallone—called up Sly, said I need a guy. Sly did the same thing with Rambo 2 with George. And I said to George, “While you’re alive George, I won’t say a goddamn thing.” [Cosmatos died April 19, 2005.]
And it was the hardest work of my life. Tombstone was so painful. Tombstone was so tough, you know what I mean? It was just so painful; it was hard physically to do—I got four hours sleep every night. And I’m so happy that we got it made.
I didn’t get a chance to edit the movie, which I thought was unfortunate because it could have been one of the greatest Westerns ever, ever, ever made. And it’s pretty damn good. We had a great cast. A phenomenal script.

To me, this was a huge revelation but I don’t remember hearing anything about it anywhere. I know True West is a niche magazine but I would have thought someone would have picked up on this. I put Tombstone at or near the top of my list of modern westerns. It’s a classic. That Russell directed it from behind the scenes is no small feat. Did I just miss this completely or does nobody care? IMDB still lists Cosmatos as the director. Hmm. That reminds me: I need a good high def version of the film. Who will be my huckleberry?