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John Wayne was riding remarkably high in the saddle in the early 1950s, knocking out one box office hit after another, when he decided to diversify his Hollywood profile by producing movies. So in 1952, the star of "Red River," "Sands of Iwo Jima," and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" hooked up with his longtime showbiz pal Robert Fellows, and together they founded Wayne-Fellows Productions. Wayne was picky about the people with whom he made movies, but Fellows more than earned his trust. According to Scott Eyman's "John Wayne: The Life and Legend," the Duke once said of Fellows, "What Bob doesn't know about the business isn't worth knowing."

Their first film together was the politically ignorant turkey "Big Jim McClain," which starred Wayne as a heroic special investigator for the House Un-American Activities Committee (Huac). In 1953, they released two movies,...

Throughout his 50-year filmmaking career, John Wayne was not much of a risk taker when it came to material. Once he broke through as a movie star with John Ford's template-setting Western "Stagecoach" in 1939, he mostly bounced back and forth between oaters and rah-rah war films. When he did futz with his image, he did so with great directors like Ford and Howard Hawks, whose judgment he implicitly trusted.

When it came to experimenting with emerging cinematic technology and new formats, however, Wayne was open to giving anything a whirl that would help movies stave off the stay-at-home threat of television. He made lots of films in Cinemascope and starred in "How the West Was Won," one of the first three-strip Cinerama movies. You might think the 3D fad of the 1950s would've been too sweaty for the Duke, but he actually teamed with director John Farrow to shoot...

Lost’s Josh Holloway is ready to treat crowds to multiple projects as he prepares to go West for an adaptation of Louis L’Amour’s novel Flint. Cameras spin up later this year in New Mexico on the newly-announced film written and directed by Ryan Whitaker, which finds Holloway leading the Western as James Kettleman, “a ruthless East Coast businessman,” who, according to Deadline‘s exclusive report, “returns to the unforgiving New Mexico frontier, adopts the name Flint, which belonged to the notorious killer who raised him. As he becomes entangled in a violent range war, his encounters with a strong-willed rancher, Nancy Kennigan, challenge him to reconsider the legacy he wants to leave behind.”

In addition to taking the lead role for Flint, Holloway is producing the project alongside Ken Carpenter, Mark Pentecost (The Mulligan), Jerilyn Esquibel, and Beau L’Amour, the son of Louis L’Amour.

“The story of...

Exclusive: Ahead of his new Max series Duster‘s May premiere, Josh Holloway has inked a deal to star in Flint, an adaptation of the Western novel by Louis L’Amour, which is due to begin production in New Mexico later this year.

Written and to be directed by Ryan Whitaker, the film has Holloway taking on the lead role of James Kettleman, a ruthless East Coast businessman who, in returning to the unforgiving New Mexico frontier, adopts the name Flint, which belonged to the notorious killer who raised him. As he becomes entangled in a violent range war, his encounters with a strong-willed rancher, Nancy Kennigan, challenge him to reconsider the legacy he wants to leave behind.

In addition to starring, Holloway will produce alongside Ken Carpenter, Mark Pentecost (Florida Wild), Jerilyn Esquibel (The Unbreakable Boy), and Beau L’Amour, son of Louis L’Amour. Tirian Films...

Television shows with a Western theme have been very popular in the last few years. As a result, a literary classic, which received the miniseries treatment in 1989, is making a comeback.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Lonesome Dove and the other books in the Pulitzer Prize-winning series from author Larry McMurtry will be adapted for the screen once more. Teton Ridge Entertainment acquired the film and television rights to the property in a deal with McMurty's estate. However, the publishing rights remain with Simon and Schuster. It is unclear if the novel adaptation will be a movie or a television show.

RelatedThis 96% Fresh Thriller Secretly Steals 1 of the Greatest Western Storytelling Tropes (& It's Perfect)

Jeremy Saulnier's Rebel Ridge uses western tropes to tell a modern story about police brutality and racial profiling.

Thomas Tull and Jillian Share from Teton Ridge Entertainment will produce the project, along with Jon Jashni. McMurtry's...

America is in another Western ascendancy, as the sweepingly cinematic genre has been given new life on TV. With Taylor Sheridan's continued iron grip on the drama side of the genre with his shows Yellowstone and its spin-offs, as well as the latest series from writer Mark L. Smith, American Primeval on Netflix, the dirt-flecked New World creation is on the come up. And as the prevailing winds move in this creative direction, studios have been eager to gobble up the rights to the classics. An according to The Hollywood Reporter, production company Teton Ridge has just acquired the rights to Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove book series.

Lonesome Dove — which was published in 1985 — is the first in McMurtry’s series (but third chronologically), which also includes the subsequent books, Dead Man's Walk, Comanche Moon, and Streets of Laredo. The book, which was made into a popular...

As the Western genre continues its renaissance thanks to Yellowstone and its Taylor Sheridan-backed spinoffs, one of the classics of the literary genre is being put into development.

Teton Ridge has acquired the rights to adapt Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove and the subsequent books in the Pulitzer Prize-winning series. The deal, which was made with McMurty’s estate, covers film, TV, and all rights except publishing, which remain with Simon and Schuster. It’s unclear if the new adaptation will be a film or for television.

McMurtry’s epic follows retired Texas Rangers who go on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana, during which time they encounter many dangers. Streets of Laredo, Dead Man’s Walk and Comanche Moon followed Lonesome Dove, and were also adapted for TV, with Comanche Moon airing in 2008.

Thomas Tull and Jillian Share from Teton Ridge Entertainment will produce the Lonesome Dove adaptation,...

Perhaps more than any other genre, the Western demands a specific, rugged essence from its actors to be believable. For example, character actors such as Ben Johnson, Jack Elam, Chill Willis, and John Ireland possessed a certain aesthetic that allowed them to become part of the iconography of the genre as a whole. However, some Western stars can manage the aesthetics of the genre without the acting chops of character actors.

Cinema's greatest Western stars embody toughness, grit, and self-reliance. They also are able to transcend time, shedding their modern sensibilities and encompassing the spirit of the Old West. Actors such as Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, and James Stewart rank among the best Western stars of all time.

This article was updated on February 4, 2025, by Christopher Raley: The Western is one of the greatest genres in cinema. It straddles the line between fantasy and reality, and the Golden Age of...

Among the most recognizable performers in the American entertainment industry, few actors have had a more eclectic career than Sam Elliott. The respected figure has appeared in multiple films and television shows, allowing a wide range of audiences to enjoy his talents. In particular, Elliott's prolific work in the Western genre features some of his best material.

As one of the most stylized genres in fiction, Westerns can evoke several themes in storytelling, construct great action and create several dynamic characters. Thanks to various roles across film and TV, Sam Elliott has a career that encompasses some of the best acting performances of his era.

The Sacketts Details a Journey Amongst Brothers Role: Tell Sackett

Adapting two novels by author Louis L’Amour, the 1979 NBC two-part Western miniseries The Sacketts recounts a tale of three brothers who leave Tennessee and start a new life together in Santa Fe. With an emphasis on classic Western action,...

Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot's 1982 Civil War Western film The Shadow Riders will be streaming for free next month. The movie hits Tubi on Jan. 1, 2025.

Based on Louis L'Amour's novel of the same name, The Shadow Riders focuses on two brothers (Selleck and Elliot) who meet up after fighting on opposite sides of the Civil War. When the brothers return home, they find their siblings have been kidnapped, and they set out to rescue their family. Dominique Dunne and Katharine Ross starred alongside Selleck and Elliot in the film. The 96-minute movie premiered in the United States on Sept. 29, 1982, when it aired on CBS, foregoing a traditional theatrical run.

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Daniel Craig has explained why he wouldn’t have been able to star in new film Queer if he was still playing James Bond.

Over...

By the early 1950s, John Wayne had more than proven himself as Hollywood's premiere Western star, having already starred in Stagecoach, Fort Apache, and Red River. But the Duke was just getting started. In 1953, Wayne jumped on the 3-D craze, enveloping Hollywood with the Western adventure Hondo, which was based on the short story "The Gift of Cochise" by famed Western author Louis L'Amour. As the titular Hondo Lane, the Duke proved himself a powerful force, cementing the character into the pop culture zeitgeist. Unsurprisingly, Hollywood would revisit Hondo again just over a decade later, this time as a single-season television program and without the Duke in the leading role.

Mo Brings Plenty is heading to Teton Ridge.

The Yellowstone star has been named American Indian cultural affairs director for the Western sports, media, lifestyle and entertainment company. The role will find him helping to oversee “authenticity, diversity and overall industry culture” across a variety of Teton Ridge properties including Cowboys & Indians Magazine, the Arizona Ridge Riders, a professional bull riding team within the Pbr Teams League and Teton Ridge Entertainment, a division that produces films, series and new media projects exploring Americana and the themes, ethos and setting of the American West.

There’s been some news out of the division over the past year. In October, it was announced that eOne president of film production Jillian Share had been tapped to serve as president of Teton Ridge Entertainment. Two months later, in December 2023, Jen Gorton was hired to serve as executive vp of production and development.

In February,...

Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott shine in The Shadow Riders, bringing their iconic Western chemistry to the small screen. The family-friendly adaptation of Louis L'Amour's novel offers action-packed scenes for all ages to enjoy. Stellar performances from the cast, including Katharine Ross and Ben Johnson, enhance the film's appeal and rewatch value.

These days, actor Tom Selleck is best known for his role as Commissioner Frank Reagan on Blue Bloods, the long-running and much-loved CBS police procedural. Sam Elliotts most notable work as of late was becoming the main star of a Yellowstone prequel series called 1883 where he played Shea Brennen, the high-strung but tragic hero of the expedition. Even though Elliott has found his way back to a genre that first made him a star (see his role in 1967s The Way West), Selleck too made his mark in westerns as well, from the late '70s to the early '80s.

Exclusive: Teton Ridge Entertainment has picked up the rights to adapt bestselling author Louis L’Amour’s novel Fallon and will develop a screenplay based on a pitch by writer Peter Chiarelli (Crazy Rich Asians).

The old west-set Fallon follows Macon Fallon, who is on the run and in need of fast cash. Fallon sets out to con an idealistic group of pioneers, but when a young woman catches on, things take an unexpected turn.

Jonathan Glickman is attached to produce and has been developing the film prior to his recent appointment as CEO of Miramax. Teton Ridge Entertainment’s EVP of Production Jen Gorton and Creative Executive Madeleine Moore will oversee the project. Beau L’Amour will serve as EP.

Run by President Jillian Share, newly formed Teton Ridge Entertainment produces scripted and unscripted films, television series, podcasts and new media content that explores Americana stories and highlights the themes, ethos...

1953's Hondo wasn’t John Wayne’s most successful film, but its legacy has endured thanks in part to the powerful acting and the slightly more sympathetic than usual portrayal of its Indigenous characters. Based on the Louis L'Amour story "The Gift of Cochise," the film follows a burgeoning love affair between Wayne's Hondo and a frontierswoman, Angie, played by Geraldine Page, during a time of escalating tensions with the local Apache tribe. The role was Page's first official foray onto the silver screen — and after her treatment at the hands of Wayne and director John Farrow, it's no wonder she waited eight years before attempting another one.

Bettye McCartt, played by Juno Temple in The Offer, was a crucial part of getting The Godfather made, by supporting producer Albert S. Ruddy behind the scenes. McCartt's real-life impact isn't as well-known as figures like Coppola or Evans, making her portrayal on The Offer a significant and educational choice. Juno Temple brought McCartt to life authentically, embracing the challenge of developing a character with limited information, trusting in the script's accuracy.

Juno Temple plays Bettye McCartt in the Paramount+ series The Offer, but is the character based on a real person? The Offer is about the true exploits of producer Albert S. Ruddy in trying to get The Godfather made. The series stars Miles Teller as Ruddy, while the supporting cast is filled with real-life figures, from producer Robert Evans (Matthew Goode) to director Francis Ford Coppola (Dan Fogler). However, Bettye McCartt is not someone whose important work behind...

One of the most ambitious Western movies ever made, How the West Was Won united some of the greatest talents in Hollywood to tell an epic story about the American West. The film was directed by Henry Hathaway, John Ford, and George Marshall, based on a story by infamous Western author Louis L'Amour, and featured a star-studded cast that included Caroll Baker, Richard Windmark, Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, John Wayne, and James Stewart. But did you know that another Western icon was meant to take on the role of Linus Rawlings, the role Stewart plays in many of the film's segments? That icon was none other than Gary Cooper, known best for his previous work in High Noon. Unfortunately, Cooper was unable to play this part due to a serious illness.

Sean Connery left the James Bond franchise to star in Shalako, his only Western, due to his desire to avoid being typecast. Despite the decline of Westerns during its release, Shalako attempted to capitalize on the popularity of the Bond films but ultimately failed to impress critics and audiences. Connery enjoyed his experience making Shalako but did not pursue any more Western roles, as the genre was waning in popularity and his previous Western had been a box office bomb.

Sean Connery exited the James Bond franchise to make his one and only Western. The success of Dr. No would kick off one of cinema's most iconic franchises, and there had never been a movie phenomenon quite on the same scale before. However, Connery began to tired of both the role and the producers behind the series. He feared being permanently typecast and that he wasn't being fairly compensated, given...

Rambo 3's alternate story was not only a better fit for the franchise, but it would have saved the filmmakers from several issues that plagued the final movie. Stallone was at the peak of his movie stardom in 1985, due to the twin successes (and excesses) of Rocky IV and Rambo: First Blood Part II. The titular soldier then became the poster boy for action cinema in the '80s, making another Rambo movie inevitable. Of course, Rambo 3 doubled down on what made the second entry so popular, meaning bigger explosions, a bigger bodycount and bigger muscles for Stallone.

Rambo 3 also held the record - albeit briefly - for the most expensive movie ever made. Speaking with Indie Film Hustle podcast, co-writer Sheldon Lettich recalled how he and Stallone settled on the Soviet-Afghan war as the storyline. Stallone had wanted to move away from jungles after the second movie,...

Who knew when the year began that a sequel to a 36-year-old movie starring its 60-year-old actor who headlined the original would be the box office champ so far this year? But “Top Gun: Maverick” starring Tom Cruise, which was released Aug. 23 on digital formats while still flying high in theaters is not only the No. 1 film of the year with a staggering haul of 683.4 million domestically and 720 million overseas. And the acclaimed film didn’t even play in China or Russia. “Top Gun: Maverick” is also the biggest film of Cruise’s career which began in 1981 with Franco Zeffirelli’s “Endless Love.”

And with the digital release, let’s relive 1986, the year we first felt the need for speed and flew into the danger zone. The year the original “Top Gun” took our breath away.

Top 10 Box Office Hits

Top Gun (natch)

Crocodile Dundee

Platoon

The Karate Kid Part...

The fourth season of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” is set in 1986. Talk about déjà vu.

The top movie of the year was “Top Gun” starring Tom Cruise and this year, the sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” is the top flick earning nearly 582 million in North America. “Cobra Kai,”the TV sequel to “Karate Kid,” is one of the most popular series on Netflix and several “Star Trek” series have blasted off on “Paramount+.

A handful the top ten TV series including “Cheers,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “The Golden Girls” are living on in repeats. One of the top series, “60 Minutes,” is still chugging away on CBS after 54 seasons making it the longest running primetime series on the small screen. And Michael J. Fox, who won the Emmy that year for “Family Ties,” will receive an honorary Oscar this fall.

So, in honor of “Stranger Things” let’s take the time...

Aside from the Paramount Network drama Yellowstone completing a third season as cable TV’s most watched show, the drama received its first Emmy nomination, for Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program.

The MTV Entertainment Studios-produced series stars Kevin Costner and is written by Taylor Sheridan and has the benefit of spectacular outdoor vistas in Montana. But the responsibility to create the look of the sets falls to production designer Cary White, set decorator Carly Curry and art director Yvonne Boudreaux, who all joined the series’ panel at Deadline’s Contenders Television: The Nominees awards-season event.

“Shooting in Montana and the backdrop, we couldn’t be in a better location,” said Boudreaux. “The show is about the struggle for land, and having this enormous ranch and holding onto it, and we are lucky to be in one of the most beautiful places in Montana…being able to...

In our Q&a series Last Call, we get down to the bottom of every last thing with some of our favorite celebs - from the last thing they texted to the last thing they binge-watched. This week, actor Booboo Stewart takes our call.

From Twilight to Descendants to Julie and the Phantoms, Booboo Stewart continuously stars in some of our favorite, most addicting films and series. Now, the 26-year-old is starring opposite Diane Lane and Kevin Costner in a new suspense thriller, Let Him Go - which follows the story of George Blackledge (Kevin), who's a retired sheriff, and his wife, Margaret (Diane), as they fight for their family, leaving their Montana ranch to rescue their grandson from a dangerous family in the Dakotas. Ahead of the film's Nov. 6 release, we chatted with the actor about his last day on set, the piece of advice that changed his life,...

The Western novel, when written by laconic authors like Louis L'Amour and Max Brand, fills its reader with bucolic imagery of pastel sunsets, picturesque vistas, bustling towns, and charismatic cowboys. But there is a subgenre of Weird Westerns, Horror Westerns, and Gothic Westerns that take the tropes of the Old West and combine them with the macabre, the supernatural, and the truly bizarre.

Related: 10 Hidden Details In No Country For Old Men Everyone Missed

In recent decades, films have been made to capitalize on this genre like Ravenous, Bone Tomahawk, and The Dark Tower. They continue to be successful with a niche audience, perhaps because viewers don't want the true horror of the Old West to pollute their fantasies. Perhaps with the popularity of small-screen adaptations like Deadwood, this won't be the case forever. Here are 10 Western books too twisted to be made into films.

Long before the push for diversity and inclusion, Hollywood had a few Latin/Hispanic stars who made a big impact. One was Katy Jurado, the first Latina actress to win a Golden Globe (for 1952’s “High Noon”) and the first nominated for an Oscar (1954’s “Broken Lance”).

She was born Jan. 16, 1924, in Mexico, and began making films as a teenager. Though she was originally cast as spitfires or vamps, her roles got better and she added intelligence and subtlety to her characters. Variety reviewed her in the 1951 film “Bullfighter and the Lady,” saying she “makes a very strong impression” in her Hollywood debut. She won three Ariel Awards, the highest honor for Mexican filmmaking, including one for Luis Buñuel’s 1953 “El Bruto”; in 1997, she added a Special Golden Ariel for lifetime achievement.

Painted by Diego Rivera and romanced by novelist Louis L’Amour, Jurado remained the only Mexican actress to be Oscar nominated for nearly 50 years,...

American novelist Louis L'amour famously said, "Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you." And when Netflix announced that it would be rebooting The Baby-Sitters Club, droves of the book series's fans began reminiscing about their love for the stories on social media, complete with tales of reading it to their children or saving the collection because it was what sparked their love of reading. As I read through the comments, I started to think about my own beginnings as a reader.

I'm now a person who lives for books. I was an English major in college, where I even took a class on fairy tales. I read on the subway, in the doctor's office, and before bed. I consider my happy place on the beach with a good book. But that love started far earlier in my home in Long...

Hondo (1953), which is set to play June 13 - July 4 at the Museum of Modern Art as part of their "3-D Summer" series, was John Wayne's first Western in three years. It was produced by his own Wayne/Fellows Productions (later named Batjac), founded just the year prior by Wayne and producer Robert Fellows. And James Edward Grant, who had already written several Wayne features and had a particular flair for writing classic John Wayne dialogue, penned the screenplay. All told, one gets the sense that everything about this exemplary return to the genre was a carefully conscious decision by the iconic American star. Hondo is a definitive Western. Moreover, it's a definitive John Wayne Western.When Wayne made Hondo, his masculine persona was already firmly established. After viewing the film at one point, Wayne supposedly declared, "I'll be damned if I'm not the stuff men are made of." Such a comment,...

When they say, "They don't make 'em like that anymore," this is what they're talking about. "How the West Was Won," released in America 50 years ago this week (on February 20, 1963) was probably the most ambitious western ever made, an epic saga spanning four generations, 50 years, two-and-a-half hours, five vignettes, three directors (well, actually four), the widest possible screen, and an enormous cast of A-listers, including James Stewart, Debbie Reynolds, Gregory Peck, George Peppard, Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, and Spencer Tracy. It's hard to imagine any movie, let alone a western, being made on such a grand scale today, when it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Naturally, in a production that massive, there was a lot of chaos behind the scenes. Even fans of the movie may not be aware of the off-camera feud between Peck and his director, the technical challenges imposed by the untried widescreen format,...

Thanks for the identification of Claudia Cardinale in the masthead. I've always wondered about the guy on the left. Who is it? I sometimes think it looks like Sean Connery, but I can only think of one Western he was in. Any help appreciated!

Martin

Retro responds: Right you are, Martin- it's Connery in the title role of the 1968 Western Shalako. Thanks for asking- it's gives us an excuse to reproduce the movie's cool original U.S. one sheet. For an interview with producer Euan Lloyd about the trials and tribulations of bringing this Louis L'Amour story to the screen, see Cinema Retro issue #2. Before anyone asks, the actor to the left of Clint Eastwood is Robert Vaughn in the Man From U.N.C.L.E. feature film The Spy With My Face.