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3:10 to Yuma in our magazines

THE MOVIE: 3:10 to Yuma

THE STARS:
Russell Crowe • Christian Bale • Peter Fonda • Ben Foster
DIRECTOR: James Mangold

THE CONCEPT:
Remake of the 1957 classic Western. Poor rancher Dan Evans (Bale) is given the opportunity to get back on his feet financially when he joins the posse escorting notorious outlaw Ben Wade (Crowe) on a three-day journey to the train station at Contention. There Wade will board the 3:10 to Yuma, to stand trial for his crimes…

U.S. RELEASE: September 7 2007, Nationwide
• Rated: R

THE COMMENTS:

JAMES MANGOLD:
“It struck me; why not actually try to tackle the original film and the original story ideas from a modern perspective? Sometimes the most attractive land is the land that hasn’t been plowed lately, and the Western seemed to me to have been abandoned in the last decade. Yet it’s such an integral part of American moviemaking.”

RUSSELL CROWE:
“I’d spent quite a bit of time with Jim Mangold about six years ago; we became conversational friends. So when he sent me the script I read it and I enjoyed the dynamics between Ben Wade and Dan Evans – decision made.”

CHRISTIAN BALE:
“Russell and I had never met before. Whenever people asked me what I was doing next, and I’d say I was working with Russell, they’d say, ‘You’re going to be in for a tough ride with him.’ And it’s absolutely true!” [Both he and Crowe laugh] He’s obviously a bloody good actor and it’s a pleasure to work with somebody as good as that.”

BEN FOSTER (Charlie Prince, Wade’s right hand man):
“I had a great time developing Charlie. Going over a lot of photos of outlaws with Jim (Mangold) and Arianne (Phillips)], our costume designer, we came to the conclusion that outlaws were rock stars of their day, very flamboyant dressers. My take on Charlie is that he’s the prince and Ben Wade is the king.”

PETER FONDA (Byron McElroy):
“The original movie meant a lot to me because I happen to like character driven stories, especially dealing with something that’s supposed to be a ‘shoot ‘em up.’”

FOSTER:
“I don’t play a bad guy, because at the end of the day you’ve got to love the person you’re playing to the bone. You’ve got to fight for that person, and the only way to do that is to understand their beliefs and their loves. For Charlie, that’s Ben Wade. He would do anything for him, and when you’re in an environment like that you have to kill to survive.”

CROWE:
“Right from the first time we did a reading I could see that Christian had a sense of humor and was very balanced about what the job is. Once you’ve worn the cape [for Batman], it must be hard to keep your feet on the ground, and you can tell there’s a lot of base jealousy coming from me about the fact that he gets to wear the cape.”

BALE:
“I bought Russell his own special rubber outfit!”

CROWE:
“Which I appreciated! We found it really easy to get on. I said to him on the last night, when we were finishing up, that he’s all class.”

Written by Judy Sloane. Back to top

Visit the official 3:10 to Yuma site
Images above © Lionsgate
Feature © 2007 Visual Imagination Limited.
Not for reproduction.

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