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Discussions now continued apace on the
cast’s secondary leads. Heston had originally
proposed Anthony Quinn for the role of
Ben Tyreen and Peckinpah had wanted Lee
Marvin to play Dundee’s one-armed scout Sam
Potts. However, when both actors turned down
the roles they were then offered to Richard Harris
and James Coburn, respectively. Australian actor
Michael Pate, who had carved a career out of
playing numerous Native Americans onscreen,
was cast as the renegade Apache chief Sierra
Charriba.
Before they could allocate other actors to the
numerous supporting roles, it was imperative
that the scant story be developed into a workable
screenplay. Peckinpah agreed to supervise
Harry Fink, who had been hired by Bresler to
write a first-draft script of his original story. After
ensuring that Fink knew to incorporate all the
ideas that had been discussed at the conference,
Peckinpah took off for Durango in Mexico to
scout suitable locations for the movie.
When he returned some weeks later, Fink sent
him a batch of screenplay pages he had written
that covered the first third of the film. As he
read through the script, Peckinpah grew aghast
at Fink’s overly convoluted plot, which
meandered all over the place, and
dialogue so peppered with profanity, it
would never get past the censor. Fink
had also not elevated the Tyreen character
to full co-star status, as Peckinpah
had ordered. In Fink’s version, Tyreen is
practically relegated to being no more than a
mere onlooker to the whole saga.
A furious Peckinpah wrote to Fink and copied
in Bresler, “... Your first draft is so appalling, it’s
completely unworkable ... no film company or
director would or could shoot your script ... I
want no part of it”. Bresler immediately brought
in a new writer, Oscar Saul, who together
with Peckinpah set about writing a whole new
screenplay.
It was now almost the end of October 1963
and the film was due to begin shooting in
December, which was now impossible. Bresler
managed to get the shoot rescheduled to
the 1st of February 1964. This was the latest
possible date that did not conflict with Heston’s
next project,
The Agony and the Ecstasy,
which
was scheduled to begin filming in Rome in the
summer of 1964.
Without Heston as the lead, Bresler knew
he would lose the financing for his movie, and
consequently, Peckinpah would be robbed
of his chance of directing a major motion
picture. A desperate Peckinpah now faced the
unenviable task of writing from scratch a 180-
page script with a three-hour running time that
included over twenty separate speaking parts
as well as casting the parts... all within three
months.
To be continued...
25
EXTRAS
EXTRAS
Without Charlton Heston
as the lead, producer
Jerry Bresler knew
he would lose the
financing for his movie...
Charlton Heston had become known worldwide
for playing a host of historic and biblical-type film
characters such as Moses, Judah Ben-Hur, El Cid
Rodrigo de Vivar, and John the Baptist. Subsequently,
the chance to play the ambitiously obsessed Major
Dundee particularly appealed to him. Even more
so as he knew that his next two contracted films
would again see him portraying historical figures –
Michelangelo and Gordon of Khartoum.
Clockwise from top:
James Coburn as Indian Scout Samuel Potts,
Richard Harris as Captain Ben Tyreen,
Sam Peckinpah scouting locations in Mexico
for
Major Dundee
, and Michael Pate as Apache chief
Sierra Charriba