“Everyone Stayed Home to Watch Gus Die”
A conversation with Lonesome Dove director Simon Wincer.
By: Henry Cabot Beck 09/25/2009
The triumph of the TV miniseries Lonesome Dove is such that to once again name the awards and repeat the ratings and draw quotes from the universal accolades doesn't quite do it justice.
At the risk of possibly underselling it, which would likely seem absurd to readers of True West, people who love great Westerns, fantastic once-in-a-lifetime performances by some of our finest actors and brilliant storytelling in the service of an eight-hour epic of the American West, Lonesome Dove is in a class by itself, and will likely remain so.
The uncommonly good-natured filmmaker Simon Wincer will tell you how lucky he was to have been given the assignment of directing Lonesome Dove, and how not a day in his life passes by that he ever forgets what it meant and continues to mean to him. Lonesome Dove was as singular an event for him as it was for the audiences who locked down into place in front of their televisions on those cold February nights.
True West: Despite Lonesome Dove’s budget constraints, casting snafus and weather problems, the series sailed to glory as if blessed.
Simon Wincer: The first few days I don’t think we even left the office where we started in Austin, Texas, ’cause it just rained and rained and rained and rained. We eventually got going, but two days [behind]; it ended up an 88-day schedule, which is 22 days per movie, a very short schedule for something as epic as Lonesome Dove....
Somehow we got it. We had such a great cast. Good material attracts good people, as simple as that, really. Everybody wanted to be in it and be a part of it because the book was so great and was so beautifully adapted by Bill [Wittliff].
How did you land the project?
I grew up in TV, and I’d done quite a few big features by that time as well. What they were looking for, I guess, was somebody who could shoot a TV schedule but with a feature background. I sort of fit the bill I suppose....
I had just finished The Lighthorsemen [1987], a film that I also produced with a partner. It was a massive undertaking. One scene involved 800 mounted riders in a charge.
I sort of fit all the boxes, if you like. And I’d done a couple of quite successful things for CBS: The Last Frontier [1986], another called Bluegrass [1988]....
I guess I was the lucky one who got the gig, ’cause everyone wanted to direct Lonesome Dove, obviously.
Post A Comment