‘Everything seemed to go right’: Kurt Russell might ‘never make his peace’ with Tombstone — but The Madison on Paramount+ is his Western redemption

If you've got Google alerts on for Kurt Russell or Western movies, you've possibly seen the actor's unexpected comments about his 1993 hit Tombstone.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Russell (who played retired lawman Wyatt Earp in the film) explained: "The movie is not as good as the screenplay….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."

As luck would have it, another Western project is just around the corner. While the star is already in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 2 over on Apple TV, Russell is returning to his cowboy roots as Preston Clyburn in the new Taylor Sheridan show The Madison on Paramount+.

Frankly, the timing of the comments feels like serendipity, with the latter set in the heart of Montana, where Preston's ranch was built with his own two hands. But could Taylor Sheridan be responsible for Russell's genre redemption?

‘Sometimes things are smooth sailing, sometimes they’re not’

"That's a good question. It's hard because I can't make the comparison," Russell tells me. "Sometimes things are smooth sailing, and sometimes they're not. The Madison was smooth sailing. This was like one of those trips where everything seemed to go right. It was just really fun and with no problems.

"Tombstone was difficult, the editing process of it, where things were added. I'm just saying that it was a great script, and changes had to be made because of the situation that existed on that film all those years ago. But the impact of Tombstone remains.

"What The Madison promises on page... it delivers all of it."

Even just by speaking to Russell for a few minutes, I can see how much sheer joy he has for being a part of the new show. In fact, he'd go as far as to say that it's easily the best of Sheridan's career so far.

"I go back to [2016 movie] Hell or High Water, and then loved watching Yellowstone. I haven't seen Landman yet, but I know a lot of his material. I'm no aficionado, but from what I've seen and read already, and then the execution, The Madison, seeing the finished show... I agree that this is his best stuff.

"I just love the way he presented what he wrote, and what we were trying to execute and capture. I think we did. And that's, that's a real fun feeling, being able to get what you want. If your train's headed to San Francisco — you do think every time you go to work, 'Where are we going here with this?' — and often you might only make it to San Jose, right?

"But this is, this one... everything about it is spectacular."

Be seated for March 14th... You heard the man.

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