Clint Eastwood and John Wayne’s Lost Western: From Dream Duo to Hallmark Drama

There was a time when the idea of Clint Eastwood and John Wayne sharing the screen in a western had punters buzzing. The project, called The Hostiles, was set to bring together the rising star of revisionist westerns and the old guard himself. Eastwood, fresh off a string of darker, grittier films, was seen as the natural successor to Wayne’s long-held crown. Meanwhile, Wayne, though nearing the end of his career, still had plenty of pull with audiences and studios alike. The prospect of these two blokes teaming up was enough to get any film fan keen.

Scripted by Larry Cohen, the story itself wasn’t exactly breaking new ground. Eastwood would play a washed-up gambler who wins half the property of Wayne’s character, an ageing rancher. Forced to work together despite not seeing eye to eye, the pair would have to put aside their differences. Eastwood was on board and sent the script to Wayne, hoping to get him across the line.

Wayne’s Reluctance and the Project’s Demise

But Wayne wasn’t having a bar of it. He wasn’t a fan of Eastwood’s take on the genre, especially after seeing High Plains Drifter. That was enough to put the brakes on the whole thing. As Pat Stacy, Wayne’s long-time secretary, remembered,

I remember one script sent to him, intended as a co-starring vehicle for him and Clint Eastwood. And Duke’s disgust when he told me, ‘This kind of stuff is all they know how to write these days; the sheriff is the heavy, the townspeople a bunch of jerks, someone like me and Eastwood ride into town, know everything, act the big guys, and everyone else is a bunch of idiots.’

With Wayne digging his heels in, the dream pairing was off the table. Audiences missed out on what could have been a classic standoff between two of the genre’s biggest names. Predictable? Maybe. But it would have been a western for the ages.

Aftermath and a Hallmark Reboot

The collapse of The Hostiles hit Cohen hard. He called it

one of the greatest disappointments of my career

and said Eastwood’s insistence on working only with Wayne sealed its fate. Cohen reckoned,

it could have been great

even without Wayne, but Eastwood wasn’t interested in doing it with anyone else.

Decades later, the script was dusted off and given a new lease on life. Bob Barbash reworked it, keeping most of the original beats, and it re-emerged as The Gambler, the Girl, and the Gunslinger on the Hallmark Channel in 2009. Instead of Eastwood and Wayne, the leads were played by Dean Cain and James Tupper—a far cry from the original dream team. It’s fair to say the project’s journey from a much-hyped western to a Hallmark drama is one of the more unusual turns in film history.