"DAVY CROCKETT AFTER THE ALAMO"
This is an excerpt from a script that explores what might have happened if Crockett survived the Alamo siege, written by, among others, Pat Proft (pictured at right) and Neil Israel, the creators of the Tom Hanks film Bachelor Party. It was originally written in the 70s, but was finally purchased in the mid-nineties.
The screenplay opens with Davy and Georgie Russell hurtling their way through the Mexican troops into the Alamo, as a chorus sings a variation on Disney's Davy Crockett theme song.
Once inside, Bowie and Travis reveal that the Texians are hopelessly outnumbered. What follows is a good example of the film's style of humor:
| (yelling toward the Mexican camps) |
The film was nearly produced in the 1990s, as reported in the "Dish" column of Variety on Tuesday, March 9, 1993:
DAVY, DAVY CROCKETT: "Naked Gun" collaborators and longtime pals Pat Proft and David Zucker have competing Davy Crockett projects, sort of by default. Last week, Proft called Zucker -- who has long been developing a movie about the king of the wild frontier -- to inform him that Proft and Neal Israel had sold a more-than-a-decade-old script called "Davy Crockett After the Alamo" to Rocket Pictures, headed by Jon Turtle and Tom Coleman.
DISH heard that Zucker, who would not talk to us, was upset. Proft, who's at Fox readying "Hot Shots Part Deux" for a May 21 release, admitted it's a "strange thing that suddenly this happened, but I'm sure it won't hurt either project." Proft and Israel's script, which Rocket optioned for six months for $ 100,000 against a $ 1 million purchase price in a deal lassoed by William Morris agent Jonathan Sheinberg, is a western spoof (aka "The 'Naked Gun' of Westerns") , while Zucker's is a straight dramatic treatment of the Crockett story.
Proft said his and Israel's late '70s script, also written by Mike McManus and Tom Sheroman and Lenny Ripps, is a satirical spoof "based on the truth that Davy Crockett did not die at the Alamo." The story finds Crockett awakening among the dead heroes to become a national figure.
As part of the deal, Proft and the other writers have agreed to contemporize the story, possibly spoofing some of the modern westerns like "Unforgiven" (which Proft said he hasn't seen yet) and "City Slickers."
Proft said after the script sat unsold for all these years, last week's deal was "a pleasant little gift." He noted that Zucker had been aware of his script for years and was even presented it in the '70s, but nothing clicked.
The writer said he'd actually prefer if Zucker beats him to the big screen in this case, since "we'll have something more to spoof."
Sources said Rocket hopes to make "Davy Crockett and the Alamo" as a $ 15 million movie, financed by one of the indie's European partners, before the end of the year. We don't know how far advanced Zucker's is, but insiders say it has a ways to go before it's ready to brave the production frontier.
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