Dana Wheeler-Nicholson – Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers

Tombstone, 1993

Welcome back to another exciting edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! This week’s podcast is a true epic, with the boys breaking new ground and covering their first Western. The choice for their first in the genre is a film near and dear to both Dion Baia and J. Blake‘s hearts, a momentous pick that has become a modern classic, George P. Cosmatos‘ Tombstone, from 1993.

Tombstone Poster

After Blake relates a recent story about attempting to see the obscure Michael Mann film The Keep at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), the boys lay out their history with Tombstone, and setup the history of the western genre, laying out the evolution of the complexities and sophistication of themes and presentation of these stories within the film industry, through the second half of the 20th Century. Then the boys get onto the winding road that is the back story of this film, laying out the actual history of the Earps and the Cowboy Gang in the 1880’s in the city of Tombstone, and the lead up to this 1993 film being made and the extensive cast this movie boasts. How accurate was this story to the real historical events? Why was the first director Kevin Jarre (who actually penned the script) fired mere days into production? Did new director George Cosmatos actually oversee the production as credited or did one of the lead actors actually secretly direct the picture? Who was originally cast as Doc Holliday, only to be denied by the film’s distributor because of past controversy? How did the film’s rival production, Kevin Costner‘s Wyatt Earp actually help and hurt Tombstone‘s fate? Well grab your dusters, Winchester Repeaters and Colt Peacemakers, because all these convoluted stories will be explained and put into context in this all new, massive and epic installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!