Wild Wild West (other)

''Wild Wild West'' is a 1999 American steampunk Western film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and written by S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock alongside Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, based on a story conceived by Jim and John Thomas. Loosely adapted from ''The Wild Wild West'', a 1960s television series created by Michael Garrison, it is the only production since the television film ''More Wild Wild West'' (1980) to feature the characters from the original series.

The film stars Will Smith (who previously collaborated with Sonnenfeld on '' Men in Black'' two years earlier in 1997) and Kevin Kline as two United States Secret Service, U.S. Secret Service agents who work together to protect President of the United States, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant (Kline in a dual role) and the United States from all manner of dangerous threats during the American frontier, American Old West. The film features a supporting cast consisting of Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek, Ted Levine, and M. Emmet Walsh, as well as an orchestral film score by Western (genre), Western film score veteran Elmer Bernstein and extensive visual effects courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic.

Released theatrically in the United States on June 30, 1999 by Warner Bros. and produced on a $170 million budget (making it one of the List of most expensive films#Most expensive films (adjusted for inflation), most expensive films ever made when adjusting for inflation at the time of its release), ''Wild Wild West'' was a Box-office bomb, commercial failure, grossing only $113.8 million domestically and $108.3 million overseas for a worldwide total of $222.1 million. Receiving largely negative reviews from critics, the film was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards, Razzies and won five at the 20th Golden Raspberry Awards, including Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture, Worst Picture and Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song, Worst Original Song (for the song Wild Wild West (Will Smith song), "Wild Wild West" by Smith).

Plot

Four years after the end of the American Civil War in 1869, United States Army, U.S. Army Captain (armed forces), Captain James T. "Jim" West and United States Marshals Service, U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon cross paths with each other in their hunt for ex-Confederate States Army, Confederate General officer, General "Bloodbath" McGrath, seemingly responsible for a massacre in New Liberty where West's parents were killed. President of the United States, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant informs them about the disappearances of America's key scientists and a treasonous plot by McGrath, giving them the task of finding the scientists.

Aboard their train ''The Wanderer'', West and Gordon examine the severed head of scientist Thaddeus Morton, finding a clue that leads them to Dr. Arliss Loveless, a legless ex-Confederate officer and engineering genius. Infiltrating Loveless' Plantation complexes in the Southern United States, plantation during a party, the duo rescues a woman named Rita Escobar, who asks for their help in rescuing her father Guillermo Escobar, who is one of the kidnapped scientists.

Loveless holds a demonstration of his newest weapon, a steam-powered prototype tank, and uses McGrath's soldiers for target practice. Accusing McGrath of "betrayal" for surrendering at Battle of Appomattox Court House, Appomattox Court House, Loveless shoots and leaves him for dead. Gordon, West and Rita find McGrath, who reveals he was framed by Loveless for the massacre before dying. Upon catching up with Loveless on ''The Wanderer'', a panicked Rita accidentally releases Incapacitating agent#Sleeping gas, sleeping gas during a brief fight, knocking out West, Gordon and herself.

West and Gordon wake up as Loveless pulls away in ''The Wanderer'', taking Rita hostage. Announcing his intention to capture Grant at the golden spike ceremony, he leaves the duo in a deadly trap in a cornfield. After narrowly escaping, West and Gordon stumble across Loveless' private railroad, leading to his secret industrial complex at Spider Canyon. There, they witness Loveless' ultimate weapon, a giant mechanical spider armed with nitroglycerin cannons that he uses to capture Grant and Gordon at the ceremony, while West gets shot and left for dead by one of Loveless' henchwomen upon being caught sneaking in the spider.

At his complex, Loveless announces his plan to dissolve the United States, dividing the territory among Great Britain, France, Spain, Mexico, the Native Americans in the United States, Native American people and Loveless himself. When Grant refuses to surrender, Loveless orders Gordon to be executed, but West, having survived, disguises himself as a belly dancer and distracts Loveless, allowing Gordon to free the captives.

Loveless escapes on his spider, taking Grant with him. As Loveless once again demands that Grant surrender, he refuses and Loveless responds by destroying a small town. Using a flying machine, Gordon and West catch up to the spider, where West battles Loveless' henchmen before confronting Loveless himself, now on mechanical legs. After freeing Grant, Gordon shoots one of Loveless' legs, allowing West to gain the upper hand. As the mechanical spider approaches a cliff, Loveless shoots at West with the concealed gun he used to kill McGrath, but instead hits the spider's machinery, halting it abruptly at the canyon's edge. Both West and Loveless fall from the spider, but West survives by catching a chain dangling from the machinery.

Grant promotes Gordon and West as the first agents of his new United States Secret Service. As Grant departs on ''The Wanderer'', West and Gordon reunite with Rita and attempt to court her, only for Rita to reveal that Professor Escobar is actually her husband. Gordon and West ride into the sunset on the spider.

Cast

* Will Smith as United States Army, U.S. Army Captain James T. “Jim” West
* Kevin Kline as United States Marshals Service, U.S. Marshal Artemus Gordon / U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant
* Kenneth Branagh as Dr. Arliss Loveless
* Salma Hayek as Rita Escobar
* Ted Levine as General "Bloodbath" McGrath
* M. Emmet Walsh as US Marshal Coleman
* Frederique van der Wal, Frederique Van Der Wal as Amazonia
* Musetta Vander as Munitia
* Bai Ling as Miss Mae Lee East
* Sofia Eng as Miss Lippenreider
* Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon as Belle
* Rodney A. Grant as Hudson
* Gary Carlos Cervantes as Professor Escobar
* Michael Sims as Professor Thaddeus Morton
* Jerry Potter as Plantation Owner George Washington at Gala
* Ian Abercrombie as British Dignitary
* Ismael 'East' Carlo as Mexican Dignitary
* Orestes Matacena as Spanish Dignitary
* Christian Aubert as French Dignitary
* E.J. Callahan as Allan Pinkerton
* Debra Christofferson as Dora Lookalike
* Scott Sandler as Young Joe Finnegan (uncredited)
* Derek Mears as "Metal Head" (uncredited)
* David Lea as Thug With Knife (uncredited)

Production

Development

''Variety (magazine), Variety'' first reported in January 1992 that Warner Bros. had optioned the film rights to Michael Garrison's television show ''The Wild Wild West'', and hired Richard Donner to direct a film adaptation written by Shane Black, with Mel Gibson in the role of Jim West (Donner coincidentally directed three episodes of the original series). However, Donner and Gibson left the project to work on Maverick (film), a film adaptation of ''Maverick (TV series), Maverick'' (another film based on a Western TV series) in 1994. Despite this, the project continued in the development stage, with Tom Cruise rumored for the lead in 1995. Cruise instead starred in Mission: Impossible (film), a film adaptation of ''Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series), Mission: Impossible'' the following year.

Discussions with Will Smith and Barry Sonnenfeld began in February 1997 after the two had wrapped up production on '' Men in Black'' for Columbia Pictures the same year. Warner Bros. pursued George Clooney to co-star with Smith as Artemus Gordon, with Kevin Kline, Matthew McConaughey and Johnny Depp also in contention for the role while screenwriters S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock (best known for writing the ''Short Circuit (1986 film), Short Circuit'' and ''Tremors (franchise), Tremors'' films) were hired by the studio to script the film between April and May 1997. Clooney signed on the following August after dropping out of ''Jack Frost (1998 film), Jack Frost'', while the Wilson-Maddock script was rewritten by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman (best known for writing the films ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' and ''Doc Hollywood''). However in December 1997, Clooney was replaced by Kline after an agreement with Sonnenfeld: "Ultimately, we all decided that rather than damage this project trying to retrofit the role for me, it was better to step aside and let them get someone else."

Writing

The film featured several significant changes from the television series. For instance, Dr. Loveless, as portrayed by Kenneth Branagh in the film, went from a Dwarfism, dwarf to a man without legs who uses a steam-powered wheelchair (similar to that employed by the villain in the episode "The Night of the Brain"); his first name was also changed from Miguelito to Arliss and was given the motive of a Southerner who sought the defeat of the North after the Civil War. Kevin Kline plays Artemus Gordon in the film, whose character was similar to the show's version of him portrayed by Ross Martin, except that he was much more egotistical than Jim West. The film depicted Kline's Gordon creating more ridiculous, humorous and implausible inventions than those created by Martin's Gordon in the original series, as well as having an aggressive rivalry with West, unlike in the television series where he and West had a very close friendship and trusted each other with their lives. While Gordon did indeed impersonate Grant in three episodes of the series ("The Night of the Steel Assassin", "The Night of the Colonel's Ghost" and "The Night of the Big Blackmail"), they were not played by the same actor. Additionally, West was originally portrayed by Robert Conrad, a Caucasian rather than an African American, which serves a critical plot point as West's parents were among the victims of Loveless's massacre at New Liberty.

Jon Peters produced the film alongside director Sonnenfeld. In a 2002 Q&A event that appears on ''An Evening with Kevin Smith'', filmmaker Kevin Smith talked about working with Peters on a Superman in film#Superman Lives, fifth potential ''Superman'' film in 1997, revealing that Peters had three demands for the script. The first demand was that Superman not wear the suit, the second was that Superman not fly, and the third was to have Superman fight a giant spider in the third act. After ''Batman (1989 film), Batman'' director Tim Burton came onboard, Smith's script was scrapped and the film was never produced due to further complications. A year later, he noted that ''Wild Wild West'', with Peters on board as producer, was released with the inclusion of a giant mechanical spider in the final act. Neil Gaiman also revealed that Peters insisted that a giant mechanical spider be included in a proposed film adaptation of ''The Sandman (Vertigo), The Sandman''.

Filming

Principal photography was set to begin in January 1998, but was pushed three months later to April 22, 1998. The interior sequences on the trains of both Artemus Gordon and Dr. Loveless were shot on sets at Warner Bros. Burbank Studios, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, while the exterior sequences were shot in Idaho on the Camas Prairie Railroad. ''The Wanderer'' in the film is portrayed by the Baltimore & Ohio 4–4–0 No. 25, one of the oldest operating steam locomotives in the U.S. Built in 1856 at the Mason Machine Works in Taunton, Massachusetts, it was later renamed The William Mason (locomotive), ''William Mason'' in honor of its manufacturer. During preproduction, the engine was sent to the steam shops at the Strasburg Rail Road for restoration and repainting. The locomotive is brought out for the B&O Train Museum in Baltimore's "Steam Days". The ''William Mason'' and the Virginia and Truckee 22 Inyo, ''Inyo'' (which was the locomotive used in the original television series) both appeared in the 1956 Disney film ''The Great Locomotive Chase''.

Much of the Wild West footage was shot around Santa Fe, New Mexico, particularly at the western town Set (film and TV scenery), film set at the Cook Movie Ranch (now Cerro Pelon Ranch). During the shooting of a sequence involving stunts and pyrotechnics, a planned building fire grew out of control and quickly overwhelmed the local fire crews that were standing by. Much of the town was destroyed before the fire was contained.

Music

The orchestral film score, including its main theme, was composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein, a veteran of many Western (genre), Western film scores such as ''The Magnificent Seven''. The score mainly follows the Western genre's symphonic tradition, while at times also acknowledging the film's anachronistic playfulness by employing a more contemporary music style with notable Rock music, rock percussion and electronic organ. The score also briefly incorporates Richard Markowitz's theme from the original television series in one cue (uncredited in the film and not included on the album); ironically, this was one of the film's few elements that were faithful to the series, which also did not credit Markowitz for the theme. Additional parts of the score were composed by Bernstein's son Peter Bernstein (composer), Peter, while his daughter Emilie served as one of the orchestrators and producers.

Like most of his films during this period, Will Smith recorded a Hip hop music, hip hop song based on the film's plot, also titled "Wild Wild West (Will Smith song), Wild Wild West". "Wild Wild West" was a number-one hit on the U.S. pop charts, though it also won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song. It was produced by Rob Fusari, who lifted a Sample (music), sample from Stevie Wonder's 1976 hit "I Wish (Stevie Wonder song), I Wish". The song also features guest vocals from Contemporary R&B, R&B group Dru Hill, and was a star-making vehicle for Dru Hill lead singer Sisqó. Old school hip hop, Old-school rapper Kool Moe Dee had previously recorded a Wild Wild West (Kool Moe Dee song), "Wild Wild West" single of his own in 1987, to which he re-performs the chorus from his old "Wild Wild West" as the chorus of this new "Wild Wild West". A performance of the song by Smith, Dee, Dru Hill and Sisqo at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards also included Wonder performing a reprise of the chorus on piano.

Score

Score Deluxe Edition

Release

Upon release on June 30, 1999, alongside Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros.' MPAA rating system#Ratings, R-rated film ''South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut'', several news reports arose stating that adolescent moviegoers purchased tickets into seeing the PG-13-rated ''Wild Wild West'' in theaters, but instead went to see the ''South Park'' film. This was a result of a film industry crackdown that made sneaking into R-rated films tougher for children, as proposed by U.S. President Bill Clinton at the time in response to the moral panic generated by the Columbine High School massacre, which had occurred two months before the release of both films.

Marketing

Warner Bros. heavily promoted ''Wild Wild West'' as an anticipated summer Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbuster instead of Brad Bird's animated film ''The Iron Giant'', which was released two months after ''Wild Wild West''. This sparked controversy as ''The Iron Giant'' was becoming more critically successful than the critically-panned ''Wild Wild West'' upon release, despite eventually underperforming at the box office due to the studio deciding to spend their money on marketing for ''Wild Wild West'' among other films.

Home media

Warner Home Video released ''Wild Wild West'' on VHS and DVD on November 30, 1999, on LaserDisc on December 28, 1999, and on Blu-ray on May 29, 2011.

Reception

Box office

''Wild Wild West'' grossed $27,687,484 during its opening weekend, with a total of $40,957,789 for the Independence Day (United States), Independence Day weekend and ranking first at the North American box office. It dropped into second place below ''American Pie (film), American Pie'' in its second weekend, making $16.8 million. The film ended its theatrical run on October 10, 1999 after five months, having grossed $113,804,681 domestically and $108,300,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $222,104,681 against a production budget of $170 million, making it commercially unsuccessful.

Critical response

''Wild Wild West'' was met with generally negative reviews from film critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 16% based on reviews from 131 critics, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Bombastic, manic, and largely laugh-free, ''Wild Wild West'' is a bizarre misfire in which greater care was lavished upon the special effects than on the script." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 38 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert of ''The Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film one star out of four, writing that "''Wild Wild West'' is a comedy dead zone. You stare in disbelief as scenes flop and die. The movie is all concept and no content; the elaborate special effects are like watching money burn on the screen." Janet Maslin of ''The New York Times'' gave the film a negative review, saying that the film "leaves reality so far behind that its storytelling would be arbitrary even by Comic book, comic-book standards, and its characters share no common ground or emotional connection."

Accolades

''Wild Wild West'' later ranked in the listed bottom 20 of the Stinkers' "100 Years, 100 Stinkers" list (which noted the 100 worst films of the 20th century) at #2, but lost to ''Battlefield Earth (film), Battlefield Earth''.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack containing hip hop and Rhythm and blues, R&B music was released on June 15, 1999 by Interscope Records and Overbrook Entertainment, Overbrook Music. It peaked at number four on both the Billboard 200, ''Billboard'' 200 and the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.

Video game

An Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game titled ''Wild Wild West: The Steel Assassin'' was developed and released by SouthPeak Games, SouthPeak Interactive on December 7, 1999, almost six months following the film's release.

Lawsuit

In 1997, writer Gilbert Ralston sued Warner Bros. over the upcoming feature film based on the series. Ralston helped create the original television series ''The Wild Wild West'' and scripted the pilot episode "The Night of the Inferno". In a deposition, Ralston explained that in 1964, he had been approached by producer Michael Garrison, who "said he had an idea for a series, good commercial idea, and wanted to know if I could glue the idea of a Western hero and a James Bond type together in the same show". Ralston said he then created the Civil War characters, the format, the story outline and nine drafts of the script that were the basis for the television series. It was his idea, for example, to have a secret agent named Jim West who would perform secret missions for a bumbling President Grant.

Ralston's experience brought to light a common Hollywood practice of the 1950s and 1960s when television writers who helped create popular series allowed producers or studios to take credit for a show, thus cheating the writers out of millions of dollars in royalties. However, Ralston died in 1999 before his suit was settled, resulting in Warner Bros. paying his family between $600,000 and $1.5 million.''The Wall Street Journal'', July 15, 2005

See also

* List of Western films of the 1990s
* List of steampunk works

References

External links

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Budgets (Record-setting)- The Numbers.com

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1999 films
1990s English-language films
1999 science fiction films
1999 action comedy films
1990s buddy cop films
1990s Western (genre) comedy films
1990s Western (genre) science fiction films
1990s science fiction action films
1990s science fiction comedy films
1990s American films
American alternate history films
American buddy cop films
American action comedy films
American science fiction action films
American science fiction comedy films
American Western (genre) comedy films
American Western (genre) science fiction films
African-American films
African-American action films
African-American comedy films
African-American Western (genre) films
Cross-dressing in American films
Cultural depictions of Ulysses S. Grant
Films based on television series
Films directed by Barry Sonnenfeld
Films produced by Barry Sonnenfeld
Films produced by Jon Peters
Films with screenplays by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman
Films with screenplays by Jim Thomas (screenwriter)
Films with screenplays by John Thomas (screenwriter)
Films scored by Elmer Bernstein
American films about revenge
Films about amputees
Films about spiders
Films set in 1869
Films set in the White House
Films set in New Orleans
Films set on trains
Films shot in Idaho
Films shot in New Mexico
Films shot in Utah
Films shot in Monument Valley
Steampunk films
Warner Bros. films
Golden Raspberry Award winning films