Tombstone is one of those Westerns that sometimes overlooked in comparison to other Westerns of that era like Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, but if you go back and watch it, it's a cracking film and a lot of it is down to the direction.
For years, there's been a question mark over who directed Tombstone - much the same way there was one over Poltergeist. The official credit on Tombstone was George P. Cosmatos, best known for directing Rambo: First Blood 2, Cobra, and '80s schlock-horror Of Unknown Origin.
However, the story was that Cosmatos was brought on with little or no preparation and that Russell effectively called the shoots on set and helped to direct the film. In a lengthy blog post on his own site, Kilmer confirmed the rumours and said that "Kurt is solely responsible for Tombstone’s success, no question."
"We lost our first director after a month of shooting and I watched Kurt sacrifice his own role and energy to devote himself as a storyteller, even going so far as to draw up shot lists to help our replacement director, George Cosmatos, who came in with only 2 days prep."
As well as this, Kilmer also talked about he "slept on the sofa when Goldie wasn’t in town, so we could use the extra 20 minutes writing or going over schedule etc."
It's a fascinating read, and reminds us that Kurt Russell is a rare talent and what a great film Tombstone was.
Here's our favourite scene, FYI.
Via Val Kilmer Gallery