Trivia / Wyatt Earp

• All-Star Cast: The film stars Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman, David Andrews, Linden Ashby, Jeff Fahey, Mark Harmon, Michael Madsen, Catherine O'Hara, Bill Pullman, Isabella Rossellini, Adam Baldwin, Jim Caviezel, Tom Sizemore and Rex Linn.
• Billing Displacement: Gene Hackman receives third-billing and is named on all posters although he has less than 10 minutes of screen time.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $63 million. Gross, $25,052,000.
• Creator Backlash: Michael Madsen admitted in an AV Club interview that he thought Wyatt Earp was "long and boring, and...kind of pointless" and that he thought Tombstone was a much better movie. In another interview, Madsen added that he regretted that the film's long production prevented him from appearing in Pulp Fiction.
• Dawson Casting: Michael Madsen is actually four years younger than Kevin Costner, despite playing his older brother. In fact, Costner and Dennis Quaid were thought to be too old for their roles.
• Dueling Movies: Duelled with Tombstone (1993). Where Wyatt Earp was an epic (over 3 hours!) focused on Wyatt's life, Tombstone was an ensemble film centering mostly on the events in Tombstone and the immediate aftermath. Tombstone earned $56 million at the box office against a $25 million budget, meaning that it likely made a modest profit after all expenses. It has also been Vindicated by Cable and become something of a classic western. Wyatt Earp, on the other hand, was a big flop, earning only $26 million against a budget of $65 million and quickly getting forgotten (though its frequent play on television in the late '90s and early '00s earned it a decent cult following).
• Dyeing for Your Art: Dennis Quaid needed to look sickly for his role as Doc Holliday, so he spent weeks leading up to the shoot eating almost nothing. He lost so much weight that he lacked the energy to stand and had to take frequent rests between takes.
• Referenced by...: Animaniacs had one of its Mad Libs Catch Phrase openings feature the image on the main page and the Warners sitting in a theater and boasting out "Money down the drain-y!"
• What Could Have Been: Sean Connery was considered for the role of Nicholas Porter Earp.

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