As one of the most popular and stylistically recognizable filmmakers of all time, you’d be hard-pressed to find A-list actors who haven’t or wouldn’t want to work with Tim Burton. His whimsically gothic approach has cemented him as such a unique artistic force in the industry, releasing multiple iconic bangers like Batman, Edward Scissorhands, and Beetlejuice. Even pushing 70 years old, Burton continues to release incredibly revered projects. Season 1 of Wednesday quickly became one of the most-viewed TV shows on Netflix, regarding hours watched. Throughout Burton’s career, he’s tackled many different genres within his gothic parameters, including superheroes, Disney remakes, horror, and comedies. However, Burton has never made a Western film, not for lack of trying, of course.
When it comes to Westerns, no other actor, aside from maybe John Wayne, is more synonymous with the genre than Clint Eastwood. Eastwood’s roles in films like Unforgiven, Pale Rider, and the Dollars trilogy have become the actor’s most iconic, even garnering him two of his four Academy Awards. So, the prospect of Burton and Eastwood teaming up in a gothic Western is nothing short of epic. Well, the epic almost happened, as the two came incredibly close to coming together on the adaptation of a 51-year-old novel.
Tim Burton, Clint Eastwood, and Jack Nicholson Almost Adapted The Hawkline Monster by Richard Brautigan
Burton was passionate about adapting the 1974 book The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western, written by American novelist Richard Brautigan. The novel focuses on two professional gunmen, who would have been played by Clint Eastwood and Jack Nicholson, who are hired by a Native American woman named “Magic Child” in Oregon to slay a monster supposedly living in ice caves beneath her house that killed her father. When the two follow her to her home, they find that the monster beneath their house may be significantly different from what they expected.
While Eastwood may not be the first actor to come to mind when thinking of Burton’s whimsical style, over the years, Burton has proven that he can work with more serious-toned dramatic actors, including Christoph Waltz, Ewan McGregor, and, of course, Jack Nicholson, who gave one of his career’s most memorable performances in Burton’s Batman.
Eastwood isn’t exactly a stranger to the darker or supernatural side of Westerns, either. He played the main role in Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter, a film where he’s potentially a gunslinging, avenging spirit.
Unfortunately, Burton isn’t the first filmmaker to try his hand at adapting Brautigan’s novel. Hal Ashby was attached to direct the film for years before it fell apart, and most recently, Bugonia director Yorgos Lanthimos was planning to adapt the story in 2019, but that also took a back seat to his other projects. Currently, Barnaby Clay, director of the 2023 horror film The Seeding, has expressed the adaptation as being his biggest passion project.
Like All Other Attempts, Burton’s Vision for The Hawkline Monster Fizzled Away
At this point, adapting The Hawkline Monster is seen as somewhat of a cursed project. The novel has been deemed as having an “unfilmable” story, due to its unique, psychedelic, and fantastical themes. Most screenwriters who have attempted to translate Brautigan’s novel to a screenplay have given up due to the sheer bonkers direction of the story.
The closest the story ever came to being made was by Hal Ashby. Brautigan himself decided to write the screenplay for Ashby, which the filmmaker rejected. Then, Ashby tried his own hand at adapting the story, and Brautigan wasn’t a fan. The two couldn’t come to an agreement, and that’s when Burton would make his attempt at the gothic literary work.
Burton ran into a similar problem when his screenwriter for the project, Jonathan Gems, couldn’t really connect the dots, which happened a lot with his work for Burton. When the screenplay couldn’t come together, Clint Eastwood unsurprisingly unattached himself from the project.
Shortly after, Jack Nicholson also left, though he would collaborate with Burton again in another film penned by Gems, Mars Attacks!. After losing the two leads, Burton backed away from the project, fumbling what could have been the most epic film of his career.