"CROCKETT"

O: Do you think you're going to have trouble getting that movie made because it's not going to be a madcap comedy?

DZ: No, not for that reason. The problem is that what the business is nowadays is... This is the drill: You have to write a script, and once you have Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, Jim Carrey, Bruce Willis, or Tom Cruise, you can shoot anything you want. But you first have to bring back the broom of the Wicked Witch Of The West. The first thing you do is write a script that will attract an actor, and that will get you... I think that doing the Davy Crockett script will involve probably a two-and-a-half-hour movie, and the budget is going to be at least $50 million. So that starts running into money. That means you need a major actor. But there are always people coming up.

The following is from an interview with In Focus in September of 2003:

What’s the status of the “Davy Crockett” script you’ve been developing for years?
I think it needs a re-write; I still think that it could be a great movie. I think part of the problem is that was that the story that we devised was one of Davy Crockett and his son, and it was a split focus — the son got the big speech at the end of the movie, so that’s kind of difficult to sell to a major star.

I’m anxious to see “The Alamo” — that’s going to have Billy Bob Thornton as Crockett.

Looking back at your “Naked Gun” movies, there are Davy Crockett photos all over the walls.
And there are in “My Boss’ Daughter” and “Scary Movie 3.”

You’ve expressed your admiration in interviews for Crockett as this kind of no-B.S. politician. People always think of him as just being “the Alamo guy,” but he had a storied political career.
Oh, yeah. He was the Will Rogers of his day. He was a humorist — he was like Groucho Marx. He was zany and funny — a celebrity.

That’s fascinating, because people think of Fess Parker, you know?
Or they think of him as “the Alamo guy.” I’ll be interested to see, in this “Alamo” movie, how wide a scope the movie is going to be — if they have Crockett in Congress at all.

Are you going to be disappointed if Davy Crockett just shows up wearing buckskins and a coonskin cap?
Well, you know, I won’t care, really; I think I’ll enjoy the movie because I love that era of history. It may have an effect on my plans — whatever I do with “Crockett.” This is something I’ve been working on for 15 years.

This is your “Gangs of New York.”
[laughs] I hope not, man! These vanity projects…. You know, [Davy Crockett’s] a very hard story to tell, because people’s lives don’t fit neatly into a three-act structure. His first wife died, and his second wife, it’s questionable whether he even lived with her…. It’s tough. There’s a struggle to, on one hand, make good drama, and on the other hand, to tell the truth. And I don’t just want to do anything that’s going to be some kind of fiction.

The way to do it may be to portray Crockett telling it himself — because that gives me deniability. Then it would be Crockett putting a little frosting on his own story — which I’m sure he would have done.

Where did you develop your obsession with Crockett?
I think just from the Disney television show back in the mid-’50s. I’ve always been interested in him. Then, in L.A. in the mid-’80s, I re-connected with some people who were also interested in him — and they introduced me to the national organization that was interested in the Alamo and Crockett and Bowie and Travis and all of those characters; they put out a little magazine called The Alamo Journal.

And then I host a big “Crockett Rifle Frolic” on my ranch in Ojai; every two years, we have one, where everybody dresses period — artisans, craftsmen, historians, teachers, gun nuts. I became best friends with the guy who’s the editor of Guns & Ammo. [laughs]

Sounds like you’ve already got your “Davy Crockett” extras lined up.
Yeah. And then I had all my entertainment-business friends over there — so it made for an interesting combination.