Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407020017
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: EXTRA1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MAL VINCENT LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The superstar has returned to the West with an epic $60 million saga called ``Wyatt Earp.'' It covers 40 years of American history and has as many dramatic scenes as it does shootouts.
It runs more than three hours and comes after a half-dozen movies that have told the same story. The O.K. Corral conflict was told most recently in a pesky little movie called ``Tombstone,'' which was a surprise hit last Christmas.
With the odds stacked against him, Costner proudly stands his ground. ```Wyatt Earp' is already a success because, simply because it's the picture it is,'' Costner declared during a recent interview in Los Angeles. ``We made the movie we wanted to make. That's what we can be proud of.''
He concedes, though, that ``Wyatt Earp'' was destined to lose the opening weekend shootout with Disney's ``Lion King,'' which runs only 87 minutes and is in twice as many theaters.
``We won't be Number 1 but, when you think about it, `Dances With Wolves' ran for over a year and it never, not once, was Number 1 in the weekly tallies. That's not what making movies should be about. I didn't make this movie so that we could get people in and out of theaters quickly.''
As for the length, Costner said, ``It has to be that long, at least that long, to tell our story - to get the details of the family. It was cut down from a script that would have run six hours and would have had to have been a TV miniseries. I still miss some of those scenes - scenes I really wanted to play. I envisioned the whole thing as having some of the detail and family involvement of `The Godfather' series.''
At 39, Costner has the boyish demeanor of one who is going to have his fun, no matter what. He's made some seemingly foolish choices that still panned out - and made him both a millionaire and a superstar.
For example, conventional wisdom ruled that he shouldn't make two baseball movies in a row. But both ``Bull Durham'' and ``Field of Dreams'' were hits.
And ``Dances With Wolves'' was perceived by the money boys as a certain disaster. It was more than three hours long, and rode the trail when several attempts to revive Westerns had failed. The film was an international hit and won seven Oscars, including best picture.
``I don't always do what I'm supposed to do,'' Costner said, giggling mischievously.
A look at lawmen
Three years ago, Costner discovered the huge script for ``Wyatt Earp'' and took it to director Lawrence Kasdan. ``Most of us,'' Costner said, ``are so busy doing our jobs that it's up to someone else to protect us. It's not our worry to be involved with the law. In Wyatt Earp's era, the law was just being invented. There's something very appealing to a man who would do that - to a man who would protect the law. The tragedy, as it is said somewhere in our script, is that half the people Wyatt saved weren't worth saving. That's the tragedy, in a way, of modern lawmen. They can't choose whom they help. They help everyone equally. They're selfless. I wanted to play that.''
Costner was offered a role in ``Tombstone'' in mid-1992, but turned it down, saying ``I have my own `Wyatt Earp' project.'' It was made with Kurt Russell as Wyatt and Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. Critics lambasted its length and unstructured style, but it became a surprise hit. Now, there is some worry that audiences may not pay to see the same story again.
Also, there is the worry that ``Wyatt Earp'' is darker, with more drama and less gunplay. The hero is a man hardened and embittered by his lifetime of fighting lawbreakers.
Time for a break
Costner hopes to take a year off after he finishes his next film, ``Waterworld,'' which begins filming later this summer. Budgeted at $100 million, it has been said to be the most expensive movie ever made.
``It's budgeted that high because it is set on the water and things are likely to go over budget. You can't predict what will happen on the water. Maybe it will be made for less, but, at the moment, we don't even have a script finished. That is not the most comfortable place to be in.''
He hates the kind of press that attempts to expose something - anything - about his life. ``Hey, I'm human. I have frailties. There are things I don't want in the paper. It all reminds me of a scene in `Wyatt Earp.' Wyatt is in a saloon and this man tries to kill him, but he wins. He announces, afterward, that `This man would have killed me - over nothing.' I feel that way about the tabloid press. Some of them would ruin my life, if they could, over nothing. Then they'd just go to the next story.''
Cutline here here here here here.|
|By MAL VINCENT| | LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE|
Kevin Costner is no longer dancing with wolves, but in one of the riskiest shootouts of his career, he still hopes things will be OK.
The superstar has returned to the West with an epic $60 million saga called ``Wyatt Earp.'' It covers 40 years of American history and has as many dramatic scenes as it does shootouts.
It runs more than three hours and comes after a half-dozen movies that have told the same story. The O.K. Corral conflict was told most recently in a pesky little movie called ``Tombstone,'' which was a surprise hit last Christmas.
With the odds stacked against him, Costner proudly stands his ground. ``'Wyatt Earp' is already a success because, simply because it's the picture it is,'' Costner declared during a recent interview in Los Angeles. ``We made the movie we wanted to make. That's what we can be proud of.''
He concedes, though, that ``Wyatt Earp'' was destined to lose the opening weekend shootout with Disney's ``Lion King,'' which runs only 87 minutes and is in twice as many theaters.
``We won't be Number 1 but, when you think about it, `Dances With Wolves' ran for over a year and it never, not once, was Number 1 in the weekly tallies. That's not what making movies should be about. I didn't make this movie so that we could get people in and out of theaters quickly.''
As for the length, Costner said, ``it has to be that long, at least that long, to tell our story - to get the details of the family. It was cut down from a script that would have run six hours and would have had to have been a TV miniseries. I still miss some of those scenes - scenes I really wanted to play. I envisioned the whole thing as having some of the detail and family involvement of `The Godfather' series.''
At 39, Costner has the boyish demeanor of one who is going to have his fun, no matter what. He's made some seemingly foolish choices that still panned out - and made him both a millionaire and a superstar.
For example, conventional wisdom ruled that he shouldn't make two baseball movies in a row. But both ``Bull Durham'' and ``Field of Dreams'' were hits.
And ``Dances With Wolves'' was perceived by the money boys as a certain disaster. It was more than three hours long, and rode the trail when several attempts to revive Westerns had failed. The film was an international hit and won seven Oscars, including best picture.
``I don't always do what I'm supposed to do,'' Costner said, giggling mischievously.
A look at lawmen
Three years ago, Costner discovered the huge script for ``Wyatt Earp'' and took it to director Lawrence Kasdan. ``Most of us,'' Costner said, ``are so busy doing our jobs that it's up to someone else to protect us. It's not our worry to be involved with the law. In Wyatt Earp's era, the law was just being invented. There's something very appealing to a man who would do that - to a man who would protect the law. The tragedy, as it is said somewhere in our script, is that half the people Wyatt saved weren't worth saving. That's the tragedy, in a way, of modern lawmen. They can't choose whom they help. They help everyone equally. They're selfless. I wanted to play that.''
Costner was offered a role in ``Tombstone'' in mid-1992, but turned it down, saying ``I have my own `Wyatt Earp' project.'' It was made with Kurt Russell as Wyatt and Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday. Critics lambasted its length and unstructured style, but it became a surprise hit. Now, there is some worry that audiences may not pay to see the same story again.
Also, there is the worry that ``Wyatt Earp'' is darker, with more drama and less gunplay. The hero is a man hardened and embittered by his lifetime of fighting lawbreakers.
Time for a break
Costner hopes to take a year off after he finishes his next film, ``Waterworld,'' which begins filming later this summer. Budgeted at $100 million, it has been said to be the most expensive movie ever made.
``It's budgeted that high because it is set on the water and things are likely to go over budget. You can't predict what will happen on the water. Maybe it will be made for less, but, at the moment, we don't even have a script finished. That is not the most comfortable place to be in.''
He hates the kind of press that attempts to expose something - anything - about his life. ``Hey, I'm human. I have frailties. There are things I don't want in the paper. It all reminds me of a scene in `Wyatt Earp.' Wyatt is in a saloon and this man tries to kill him, but he wins. He announces, afterward, that `This man would have killed me - over nothing.' I feel that way about the tabloid press. Some of them would ruin my life, if they could, over nothing. Then they'd just go to the next story.''
by CNB