Val Kilmer To Play Wyatt Earp In Indie Western

Today in huh? news:  turns out that Val Kilmer will be portraying the famous lawman Wyatt Earp in the indie western The First Ride of Wyatt Earp.  This should be a surprise to anyone who will forever know the eccentric actor for portraying Earp’s sickly sidekick, Doc Holiday, in the ‘90s cheese classic, Tombstone (“I’ll be your huckleberry,” anyone?).

According to /Film, The First Ride of Wyatt Earp goes down like this:

“An elderly Earp sitting down with a reporter to reflect on the ride that made him a legend, when the young marshal rounded up a posse to track down the outlaw who mistakenly murdered the woman he loved.”

While it has yet to be specified, I’m guessing that Kilmer’s playing the older version of Earp.  Further, with the success of True Grit, here’s hoping that the indie western will hew more closely to the Coens’ dry, kooky vision of the American west rather than the hyper-cheesy (but still fun) spectacle that was the goofy 1990s version.

However, as /Film notes, the resume of the film’s director doesn’t do much to inspire confidence:

“The resume of Mike Feifer doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence: it is littered with a bunch of direct to video films about seral killers such as Ted Bundy, Ed Gein, and Dennis Rader, the BTK killer… But everyone deserves a chance to step up; maybe Mike Feifer will be our huckleberry with this one.”

Here’s hoping, huckleberry.

What do you think of a new Wyatt Earp film?