Despite his illustrious career both in front and behind the camera, Kevin Costner has suffered his share of slip-ups. Back in the 1990s (well before the negative headlines generated by his failed Western passion project, “Horizon: An American Saga,” and his off-screen clashes with his “Yellowstone” collaborators), the Oscar-winning actor/filmmaker hit a number of blockbuster-sized bumps in the road. His post-apocalyptic 1995 adventure film “Waterworld” was an infamous box office misfire (if also far from the disaster people often claim it was), as was his morbidly dull return to the genre two years later with “The Postman.” However, when it came to his turn as the titular legendary lawman in director Lawrence Kasdan’s 1994 epic “Wyatt Earp,” its under-performance was mainly an issue of bad timing.
Kasdan’s Western chronicles Earp’s life before and during his family’s rise as feared lawmen, with Costner joined by stars like Gene Hackman, Michael Madsen, Dennis Quaid, Bill Pullman, and Tom Sizemore. As far as lengthy biopics go, it’s an impressive film that was nevertheless overshadowed by George P. Cosmatos’ “Tombstone,” a movie that had come out just six months earlier but only focused on a key chapter in Earp’s life story (with Kurt Russell portraying the gunslinger).
“This kind of space race started, and I always regretted that there was this kind of weird competition,” Costner admitted to GQ in 2024. “And it was a fun movie, ‘Tombstone,’ but it’s too bad it went the way it went.” Indeed, the rivalry was felt both ways, and while Russell might’ve seemed cool as a cucumber in Cosmatos’ film, it was a very different story behind the scenes.
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Despite Kurt Russell’s concerns, Tombstone triumphed over Wyatt Earp
Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp looking worried in Tombstone – Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
It’s nothing new for two very similar films to be released in close proximity. “Dredd” and “The Raid” had almost identical premises when they came out in 2011 and 2012, while the world was left shaken when the asteroid disaster movies “Armageddon” and “Deep Impact” both hit theaters in 1998. When it came to “Wyatt Earp” and “Tombstone,” though, Russell worried that Tinseltown wasn’t big enough for the two of them, and it took his co-star Sam Elliott to calm him down.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2019, Elliott recalled a vital conversation he had with Russell, who was panicking when he learned that Costner’s twin film was shooting at the same time. “It was before we started, and Kurt was kind of angst-ridden about all of it because he was looking at a much bigger picture than I was, much bigger than all of us,” Elliott explained. Fortunately, the superbly-calm Elliott provided some crucial words of wisdom about Costner’s project, which proved to be all the assurance Russell needed. “I said, ‘They haven’t got this f***ing script and they haven’t got this f***ing cast.’ And that was the f***ing truth, you know? ‘Apart from that, sweat all you want,'” Elliott continued.
His assessment proved correct. Despite being the underdog, “Tombstone” went on to almost triple its $25 million budget at the global box office and earned largely positive reviews, whereas “Wyatt Earp” was seen as a creative disappointment and failed to match its far-steeper $63 million price tag in theaters. And that, as they say, is how the West was won.
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