The Emmy Award-winning Superstar
goes behind the camera—as well as on screen—
to Shoot Louis L'Amour's Crossfire Trail for TNT
By Eric O'Keefe
Photography by Nigel Parry & Brooke Palmer
Despite
the fact that his pleadings are being completely ignored by a seven-year-old
gelding, the tone of Tom Selleck's voice tells me that he is a man of
great patience and considerable persistence.
"Come on, Luther, settle down, boy. Look at the camera, Luther. No, at
the camera, boy, straight at the camera," Selleck says.
"One more pass, Tom," says photographer Nigel Parry, who, like
everyone else on the set of Crossfire Trail, is bundled up in a
parka. An Arctic front blew down off the Yukon overnight, and five inches
of snow are expected across Western Canada. Ice is forming in the muddy
puddles of the Western set's streets, but Selleck quickly and surely coaxes
the big blue roan around for another pass, gently talking to it, pleading
with it, cajoling it. Finally his mount obliges and eyes Parry, who nails
the shot for TNT's publicity machine. "That's it, Tom," says
Parry, "we're good."
Selleck's soothing tones have been applied to more than just horses during
production on the TNT original movie Crossfire Trail, which airs
January 21. In addition to his starring role, Selleck and Michael Brandman
are collaborating as the film's executive producers. The two most recently
worked together on Last Stand at Saber River, the award-winning
TNT production that premiered in 1997 to the highest ratings ever for
a cable movie. Last Stand at Saber River went on to win a slew
of awards, including a Golden Boot and a Wrangler Award from the National
Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Both
men believed that Selleck should anchor another Western, a common sentiment
among critics and fans alike. "Tom has a rare combination of good
looks, charisma, and smarts, and I especially admire his loyalty to the
Western genre, for which he's especially well-suited," says Leonard
Maltin, film critic and correspondent for Entertainment Tonight.
For a while it looked like the duo would opt for a second work by Elmore
Leonard. Then, while rummaging through the stacks of the Glendale Public
Library, Brandman came across Louis L'Amour's Crossfire Trail.
He was immediately taken by its unique opening—a Western that begins
at sea—and after a quick read he passed it along to Selleck, whose
friendship with the late writer dated back to the 1970s. Selleck and Sam
Elliott and Jeff Osterhage starred in the screen version of The Sacketts,
and L'Amour was so pleased with their performance that he wrote and scripted
The Shadow Riders for the trio, going as far as to have them featured
on the book's back cover.
Selleck read through Crossfire Trail and gave it a thumb's up.
Fortunately for him, the rights are still held by the L'Amour family,
and Louis' widow, Katherine, just happens to be one of his biggest fans.
"Tom is a terrific man in so many respects besides being such a wonderful
actor. He has a wonderful sense of values that I admire and that Louis
did, too. And besides that, he's gorgeous," she says.
Since getting a green light from the L'Amours, Selleck has been intimately
involved in all aspects of Crossfire: finding a studio, acquiring
the rights, developing a script, working up budget numbers, signing a
director, and selecting the cast. Of course, given Selleck's stature and
the L'Amour name, it wasn't exactly an uphill battle. "Tom Selleck
and Louis L'Amour—sounds like a home run to me," is how Time-Warner's
Ted Turner described the project to Brandman.
During a break in production, Selleck invites me into his "office" to
discuss this rarely seen side to his career behind the camera. His easygoing
humor is particularly telling given our plush rendezvous—a dark corner
of a large wooden barn whose only redeeming feature is a propane-powered
construction heater. He's clearly enthused about the team that's been
assembled, the success of the production so far, and the opportunity to
warm his hands. "This is what it's all about. We've got a great crew,
a dream cast, and one of Louis' [L'Amour's] best stories. I couldn't ask
for more," he says.
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TOM
SELLECK
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Once TNT
optioned Crossfire Trail and commissioned a screenplay from Charles
Robert Carner, Selleck set out to convince an old friend to take on the
director's reins. Western fans know Simon Wincer as the director of the
epic miniseries Lonesome Dove. Selleck, of course, worked with
him on Quigley Down Under. "So much of Westerns are about
the land and the love of the land. Simon understands that as much if not
more than any director in the business, living like he does on a cattle
ranch just outside Melbourne. We were lucky to get him. He was only days
away from signing on another project," Selleck says.
Studio in place, script in hand, it was time to put a cast together. "Once
word of the project got out, guys like Mark Harmon and Brad Johnson found
out about it and read for parts. I can't imagine the sacrifices Mark is
making to shoot this film as well as doing Chicago Hope. But he
wanted in, and I can't tell you what it means to have him on board. Guys
like Wilford [Brimley] and Barry [Corbin] are the genuine article. Moviemakers
know it, and audiences do, too," says Selleck.
Genuine is clearly the operative term when it comes to Tom Selleck, 54.
In person he comes across direct and engaging, if not a bit intimidating.
And it's not because the Emmy-winner has one of the most recognizable
faces in Hollywood. At 6-foot-4 inches he is a giant of a man. Put him
in a pair of boots, throw on some earthy tweeds, a brightly-colored kerchief,
and top him off with a jaunty cowboy hat—and the phrase "larger than
life" is clearly apropos.
But Selleck's priorities are definitely in order. Despite the excitement
surrounding the project, he is quick to confess that he misses his wife,
Jilly, and their daughter, Hannah, 11. The two came up to visit a few
weeks back, and one of the best parts for Selleck was that Hannah got
to ride several of the horses in head wrangler Lyle Edge's remuda.
In
a telling moment, Selleck turns boastful. But it's not his career or his
cast or his moviemaking he's talking about; it's his daughter. The proud
papa admits that not only does Hannah like to ride, but she does it "a
lot better than me." He's laughing now, and the butt of his joke is himself.
"Unlike me, Hannah began riding when she was four. She's grown up with
horses. I only really learned how to ride on The Sacketts."
The family keeps six or seven Quarter Horses on their Southern California
ranch. And when it's time for Selleck to go on location, he and Jilly
prefer to keep Hannah in school with her friends. "She's got her life,
and I've got mine. There's no reason for my work schedule to interfere
with hers," says Selleck. Out of the blue Selleck 'fesses up: "I can't
wait for this film to wrap." I sense the reasoning behind his need to
wrap up—and the cold weather has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Absolutely nothing.
©2000
Cowboys & Indians