O.K. Corral, Larry McMurtry & Quanah Parker

October 25, 2011

Just realized that Pablo Picasso was born on this date in 1881, which means he was born the day before the Gunfight Behind The O.K. Corral. There's a Cubist painting waiting to happen at lunchtime today, if I ever heard of one. Ha.

And speaking of the O.K. Corral I will be signing my books there this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Meanwhile, Larry McMurtry and his partner Diana Ossana have reportedly turned in their first draft of a screenplay for the Quanah Parker story based on the book Empire of the Summer Moon. Warner Brothers is the studio and the director is going to be Scott Cooper who did Crazy Heart, the Jeff Bridges playing Kris Kristoferson movie that was a hit last year.

We are going to be doing a major feature on the Commanche phenom that has resulted from the S.C. Gwynne book. We will be interviewing Sam for the issue and I have been talking to him via email. Here is our latest exchange:

On Oct 24, 2011, at 7:28 PM, Bob Boze Bell wrote:

Sam,
How in hell are they going to handle the Commanche brutality? I can't imagine Hollywood towing the line on the raw history. That is the real power of the book to me, that you didn't flinch, didn't tone it down, didn't sugar coat it. I hope to hell they can retain some essence of that.

—BBB

"I can't imagine how they are going to do it. I really can't. Nor can I imagine how you can compress this story into a 2-hour movie. But I guess that is why you hire OSCAR-WINNING SCREENWRITERS LIKE Larry McMurtry AND DIANA OSSANA to write it. Steve Harrigan wrote a screenplay (UNPRODUCED) about Quanah years ago that actually had a few brilliant sections. But as far as I remember it didn't get into the violence and captive abuse much.
"Somehow you have to suggest it without actually showing it. 'Last of the Mohicans' did it pretty well, I thought."

—S.C. Gwynne

True that. Well, I wish them luck. It's a great book and they hired the best in the biz, so we'll see. It would a great boost for Westerns and history.

"The truth is more important than the facts."
—Frank Lloyd Wright