The Searchers
Summary
Bruce Willis could have step into the boots of John Wayne for a sci - fi remake of the latter ’s most iconic Western . Few doer are as closely tied to a genre as Wayne is to Westerns . John Wayne starred in 80 Westernsthroughout his decades - prospicient career , and while he appeared in everything from romantic dramas to cop movies , his biggest successes incline to feature him as a rodeo rider . Even his final movie - 1976’sThe Shootist- was a Western . The whizz is so closely tie to his pic that few filmmakers have attempted true - up remakes of Wayne ’s pic either .
The most famous remake would be the Coen Brothers ' variant ofTrue Grit , where Jeff Bridges inherited the role of Rooster Cogburn from Wayne . Not only did the 1969 original earn Wayne his sole Oscar for Best Actor , but it ’s also the only part he returned to for a sequel , with 1975’sRooster Cogburnbeing the star ’s next-to-last moving-picture show . 1966 also saw the release of aStagecoachremake , with the original sport Wayne ’s breakout role as The Ringo Kid . While not on the nose a direct remake of the 1960 Wayne motion-picture show , 2004 also saw a new take onThe Alamo .
In 1977 , John Wayne was expect to list his five personal favorite films , which just so materialize to include two democratic movies of his own .
The Trail Was A Planned Sci-Fi Remake Of John Wayne’s The Searchers
This new take on Searchers set the story on an alien planet
In short , most filmmakers avoided trending on Wayne ’s terrority . The Searchersis often cited as boast Wayne ’s undecomposed performance and being his best Western , period . The film has been hailed as a chef-d’oeuvre by everybody from Steven Spielberg to Martin Scorsese , who very loosely remade it asTaxi Driver . The movie ’s narrative comply Wayne ’s sulfurous , violent Civil War vet as he rig out to deliver his kidnap niece from the Comanche . In 1997 , it was announced that Warner Bros would remakeThe SearchersasThe Trail , to be directed by Phillip Noyce .
Screenwriter Richard Jefferies revealed on an episode of theBest Movies Never Madepodcast thatThe Trailtook place on an alien major planet that human race had taken over , and that " The residents do n’t like us very much . " The original report on the flick fromVarietystated the novel interlingual rendition would loosely follow the plotline ofThe Searchers , and would no doubt have follow a human agonist trying to rescue a have it off one kidnapped by the major planet ’s residents .
Warner Bros Wanted Bruce Willis To Play The Wayne Role
The studio wanted a major star for The Trail
The Trailwas place to be a major output from the studio apartment ; Jon Peters ( Batman ' 89 ) was set to produce , while managing director Noyce was coming off smasher likeClear and Present Danger . Warner Bros wanted a major A - list name for the Wayne character , with Bruce Willis being heavily tip for the function . Little is sleep together about how closeThe Trailactually occur to yield , or how interested Willis was in the project . Even with a sci - fi slant , the comparisons with Wayne would have been unavoidable for Willis .
Bruce Willis also starred in Western clowning Sunset and the Neo - westerly Last Man Standing .
The Trail was likely canned after Warner Bros experienced a costly foot race of flop in 1998 , such as theirothersci - fi WesternWild Wild West . This led to the cancelation of other pricy labor like Tim Burton’sSuperman Livesor Ridley Scott’sI Am Legend , andThe Trailwas likely seen as too handsome a risk , particularly considering it was a Western in disguise .
The Searchers Already Has A Great Sci-Fi Remake
The Wayne Western has had many unofficial remakes already
The Trailmay have essentially beenThe Calosoma scrutator in Space ! , but it would n’t have been the first time another cinema riffed on its core concept . As cite antecedently , Scorsese’sTaxi Driverused the central conceit for Travis ( Robert De Niro ) saving Jodie Foster ’s Iris , while everything from Ron Howard’sThe MissingtoPaul Bettany ’s sci - fi horrorPriesthas secretly remadeThe Searchers . However , when it comes to sci - fi remakes ofThe Searchers , it ’s severe to baffle the originalStar Wars .
The Searchers was a extremely influential photographic film which instigate George Lucas when revealing Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru ’s deaths in A New Hope .
Lucas has often cited his debt toThe Searchers , which can be seen in the 1977 motion picture ’s wholesale shots of the desert to its story of a young man - Luke Skywalker , in this case - teaming with an old warfare veterinarian ( Obi - Wan Kenobi ) to rescue a vernal fair sex . Luke find out the char remains of his aunty and uncle also recalls a standardised succession fromThe Searchers . It ’s hard to know howThe Trailwould have value up toThe Searchers , butStar warfare : A New Hopeis really the only sci - fi remaking the movie needed .
Source : Best Movies Never Made , Variety
