1993’s Tombstone is considered to be one of the best Westerns of all time, and Kurt Russell is one of the big reasons for that. The late Val Kilmer even once said that the Wyatt Earp actor was “solely responsible for Tombstone’s success.” And yet, even with the movie having such an enduring legacy more than 30 years later, Russell’s strong take on what was ultimately delivered to the big screen has me wondering why we’ve never gotten that original version of Tombstone.
These days, Kurt Russell can be seen playing Lee Shaw in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, a role he shares with his son Wyatt Russell (who also has his own Monarch spinoff in the works). While they were promoting the Apple TV subscription-exclusive series to THR, the Escape from New York actor took some time to talk about Tombstone when the interviewer brought up that the elder Russell has said before how he wishes he could look at it through the audience’s eyes because he “can’t help but remember what the movie could have been.” Kurt Russell said to this:
That’s because of the screenplay. The movie is not as good as the screenplay
Glory screenwriter Kevin Jarre penned the Tombstone script, and originally the plan was for him to direct the feature as well. However, Jarre was fired a month into principal photography by producer Andrew Vajna because he was falling behind schedule, and Rambo: First Blood Part II’s George P. Cosmatos was hired to take his place. However, Kurt Russell told True West in 2006 that it was really him who handled helming the rest of Tombstone, and that Cosmatos was a “ghost director” because Russell didn’t want to be credited for his behind-the-scenes work.
So with all those additional responsibilities on top of his acting, obviously that made Tombstone an especially stressful time for Kurt Russell. That’s the reason why, according to co-star Michael Biehn, he seems so “angry” in Stargate. When the THR interviewed followed up by asking if he’s been “able to make more peace” with what happened with the Tombstone script, Russell answered:
I’ll never make peace with that. 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. 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.
I’m not saying that Tombstone, which is also one of the best movies of the 1990s, should absolutely be remade, as there’s a lot more that could go wrong than right with such an endeavor. What I do wish is if Kevin Jarre’s unedited screenplay was made available so that we had a better idea of what Kurt Russell is talking about. It’s already a high honor to be considered one of the great Westerns, so for Russell to say Tombstone had the potential to be one of the greatest movies ever has me all the more curious about what we missed out on.
Tombstone can currently be streamed with on AMC+, which can easily be added on to your Prime Video subscription. As great of a Western as it is, I envy the people who live in the universe where the original screenplay was fully realized like Kurt Russell wanted. Russell will also be returning to the genre in the Paramount+ series The Madison, which premieres on the 2026 TV schedule March 14.