TriStar Not So Quick to Release Western

TriStar’s high-profile Western, the Sharon Stone vehicle “The Quick and the Dead,” has high-tailed it out of town--at least for the rest of this year, as the studio reportedly has become concerned about over-saturation of Westerns, as well as overexposure of Stone and co-star Gene Hackman.

While TriStar President Marc Platt says that a late September or early October release had been tentatively planned at the beginning of this year, he insists he always wanted to release Sam Raimi’s spaghetti-style Western tale of revenge next spring, possibly March 21. “It was the filmmakers who really wanted the film out in the summer,” he now says.

The filmmakers apparently are willing to bow to the studio’s will. “I’ve had pictures come out in the wrong time slot before, so I know the price,” says Raimi’s producing partner, Rob Tapert. “I’m sure TriStar knows best.”

Those involved in “The Quick and the Dead” say that TriStar executives were worried about the film following a plethora of other Westerns, including “Tombstone,” “Bad Girls,” “Maverick” and Warner Bros.’ latest, “Wyatt Earp.”

The last, in particular, concerned the studio because fears are that the three-hour length--despite the star power of Kevin Costner as Earp--will cause box office to drop and perhaps sour moviegoers on Westerns for the time being.

Overexposure to Westerns aside, TriStar sources say, there’s a concern about seeing Hackman in too many Westerns, period. Hackman, who plays Wyatt Earp’s father in the Warners film, also starred in the studio’s “Unforgiven.” And then there’s Stone.

“Her last two movies (“Sliver” and “Intersection”) haven’t performed well,” notes one source on the project. “The word is TriStar wanted to wait and see how ‘The Specialist’ (an action film due this fall that stars Stone and Sylvester Stallone) will do this year. If it does well, TriStar is hoping the success will bleed over for Sharon into this picture.”

“The Quick and the Dead” also stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. It spins around the story of a woman named Ellen (Stone) who rides into the town of Redemption to settle an old score. An expert shot, Ellen soon finds herself pulled into a high-stakes shooting tournament staged by the town’s kingpin, Herod (Hackman), in which gunslingers put their lives on the line for money and fame.

Aside from Raimi’s film, there are also rumblings that the release date on another TriStar frontier picture, “Legends of the Fall,” which stars Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt, could be moved back a few weeks. Platt says that picture’s Oct. 7 release may change because of TriStar’s four other late-year pictures: “Only You,” “Lifesavers,” “Frankenstein” and “Princess Caraboo.”