Making Westerns in Hollywood

I went to a creative writing workshop this weekend, and one of the sessions was about screenwriting. I know next to nothing about screenwriting and attended to listen to a youngish lawyer who had volunteered in the production and script reading sides of film making (to get his foot in the door) go on and on about how connected he was, how hard it was to break into the business (which I believe), how he now makes his own movies and sells scripts, and oh yeah, as an afterthought, here is some information about screenwriting. I was dismayed to hear him say that Westerns are one of the most difficult scripts to sell to the movie companies. I love Westerns, so this is sad. I believe he is correct because he was very knowledgeable, albeit full of himself.

When the movie "Silverado" came out (1985, same year as "Pale Rider"), I recall it was considered a big gamble for Lawrence Kasdan, as most Westerns were not doing well at that time.

Some westerns that have come out in the last 20+ years that did well were "Tombstone", "Dances With Wolves" (Oscar winner), "Quick and the Dead" (Gene Hackman), "Unforgiven" (Oscar winner), "Lonesome Dove" and "310 to Yuma".

The Louis L'Amour books have been adapted, fairly well for the most part, but mainly for television and/or cable networks.

Perhaps why the movie companies aren't interested in Westerns is that they aren't technologically complex or advanced enough to supposedly compete with high budget action movies.

Recently I watched "310 to Yuma" (remake) and "True Grit" (remake), and found them both extremely engaging and well acted to boot (no pun intended). The genre can be done well, and can make money.

Westerns are indeed a tough sell these days in Hollywood (on the bookshelves as well, unfortunately) for all the reasons fuzzi describes. Westerns can be done well still, but they are going to be special events with special material rather than an average meat and potatoes genre film. Going to need a special director and special cast behind it as well. Sad news for those of us who love the genre.

On a slightly different note, which do you prefer:

1. John Wayne 'traditional' westerns
2. Spaghetti westerns ("Good, Bad, Ugly")

There are other types, but was curious what you liked best.

Personally, I prefer the straight/traditional westerns, but am not afraid to see or enjoy lighter bits within the story (such as "Eldorado" with John Wayne, "Silverado", or "The Outlaw Josey Wales").

I guess I like traditional westerns (1) more than the "spaghetti" westerns. I think it's because I recognize so much of the land, the horses tend to be Quarter horses, rather than Andolusians, and the sound is better, the dialogue more realistic. Still, anything with Clint Eastwood or Lee Van Cleef is on my plus list.

I want to write westerns and get published, not a romance cloaked as a western but real honest to goodness westerns. Oh well. Time will tell, I s'pose.

John Wayne 'traditional' western. Spaghetti westerns, horrible soundtracks. Whole look of the movie does not give me that western feel. Most of them are not very well done. One of the worst in my opinion is God's Gun.

There's one that just came out on DVD in December called Blackthorn starring Sam Shepard. I like Shepard but the movie got mixed reviews at best so I haven't rented it.

There are others coming out in 2012: Blood Meridian, The Further Adventures of Doc Holliday (I saw adds on TV for this one), and one by Quentin Tarantino called Django Unchained. I'll look up Blackthorn.