Due to a title change, you may not have seen this one coming, but on Tuesday, March 6th, SONY HOME VIDEO will release WYATT EARP’S REVENGE, previously called THE FIRST RIDE OF WYATT EARP. (I was actually surprised that the original title had the ‘money-name’ as words number five and six; no wonder they switched it!)
I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of days on the set last March, first at the Caravan West Ranch in Agua Dulce, then at Paramount Ranch in Agoura – you can read my in-depth two part report HERE and HERE.
The film, scripted by Darren B. Shepherd from a story by Jeffrey Schenk and Peter Sullivan, is directed by Michael Feifer. Based on a real incident – the murder of Dora Hand – the tale pulls together a great many young lawmen who would become legends. Val Kilmer plays Wyatt Earp as an older man, and Shawn Roberts plays him in his youth. Matt Dallas is Bat Masterson, Wilson Bethel plays Doc Holiday, Scott Whyte is Charlie Bassett, and Levi Fiehler is Bill Tilghman. Daniel Booko and Steven Grayhm play the no-damned-good Kenedy brothers, and singer Trace Adkins plays their politically connected father. AMERICAN IDOL favorite Diana DeGarmo plays the beloved soiled dove at the center of the story, Dora Hand.
Shawn Roberts as Wyatt Earp
Producers Jeffrey Schenck and Barry Barnholtz clearly have a commitment to the genre: they produced last year’s AMERICAN BANDITS: FRANK AND JESSE JAMES, and just finished shooting BAD BLOOD – THE HATFIELDS AND MCCOYS. Here is the trailer!
FOX TRIES FOR ‘HONEST ABE’ MONOPOLY!
Talk about covering your bets! According to Deadline: Hollywood Burton
A Fox spokesman says they do not currently intend to release both pictures on the same day. They were mum on rumors that they were also trying to acquire Asylum Film’s ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS. ZOMBIES. Stay tuned. BOOK REVIEW SARAH GOLDEN HAIR – Original screenplay by Michael B. Druxman I promise to review the book shortly, but a bit of a preamble is necessary first. Before you can evaluate a published screenplay, you must decide why you are reading it in the first place. Reading a screenplay is not the same as reading a novel. A novel is a finished work, while a screenplay is a blueprint. To appreciate a screenplay you cannot speed-read. You need to pay attention to the description, not only ‘hear’ it but visualize it, to decide if it will work on the screen. Do the words of the characters sound real to you? Are they individual voices, or does everyone talk the same? If you are reading to recall your feelings when you saw a movie, you probably want a screenplay that conforms to the finished film. But if you want to know what went into making that movie, you want the same blueprint that was handed to the director and the actors and the crew. This is especially true if you are a writer – you want to see how the words were turned into a finished film.  If you want to become a screenwriter, taking classes is a good idea – assuming they’re not based on Syd Fields’ teachings – but the most important thing you can do is to read as many scripts as you can. You can learn from both good and bad examples; what works and what doesn’t. I wrote my first screenplay when I was thirteen, and I actually learned the format from STAR TREK. Gene Roddenberry used to sell copies of their scripts, and my first was Harlan Ellison’s CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER episode. It was a great script, and because it was a first draft, I could see the differences between the original ideas and the finished product. Some changes were good: he opened with a whole subplot of interstellar junkies that there was no time for, and that got dropped. Some changes were bad: Spock and Kirk, in 1930s Michael B. Druxman is a very talented writer. His CHEYENNE WARRIOR is the best micro-budget Western I’ve ever seen. It’s also one of the very best Westerns of the last twenty years, regardless of budget. What Michael has done with SARAH GOLDEN HAIR is quite audacious: he’s published a screenplay for a movie that has not been made, and is not currently slated to be. He’d written CHEYENNE WARRIOR for Roger Corman, and it was successful enough that a sequel was considered. But it didn’t happen, and Michael wrote the screenplay SARAH GOLDEN HAIR, not a sequel exactly, but a story in much the same world, with similar characters. He wasn’t able to get it made. A year later, Roger Corman hired him to write a sequel to CHEYENNE WARRIOR, but it’s currently sitting on a shelf.  As Michael explains in his introduction, any screenwriter who’s been at it for a while has some scripts that never got made, and often they’re what we consider our best work. After all, no producer has had you rewrite a part so his girlfriend could play it. No director has decided to let his actors improvise the dialogue. Michael considers SARAH GOLDEN HAIR among his best work. If someone would like to option, he’d be delighted. If not, he’d like people to have the opportunity to read it. His subject matter is the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, and a group of people caught up in that ghastly event, when a Colorado Militia attacked a village of friendly You can read my review of CHEYENNE WARRIOR, and my interview with Michael Druxman HERE: http://henryswesternroundup.blogspot.com/2011/06/round-up-joins-tcm-for-salute-to.html FREE GENE DOUBLE-BILL AT THE AUTRY SATURDAY At noon on Saturday, February 4th, the Autry will present HOME IN WYOMIN' (Republic 1942), a murder mystery at a rodeo, with Smiley Burnette, and TWILIGHT ON THE RIO GRANDE (Republic 1947) is anothe rmurder mystery, set in Mexico, and featuring short-time sidekick Sterling Holloway. |
That's right, the segment I was interviewed for is now viewable here:
That's about it for now, pardners! On Friday I had the pleasure of interviewing Robert Wolders, Erik Hunter of LAREDO, and that will b in the Round-up very soon!
Happr Trails,
Henry
All original contents Copyright January 2012 by Henry C. Parke - All Rights Reserved