Palmstar Media has optioned rights to the two Mary Doria Russell books on legendary gunslinger and gambler Doc Holliday for a movie that will star Jeremy Renner as Doc Holliday. PalmStar’s Kevin Frakes will produce with Renner and Don Handfield’s The Combine.
The novels, Doc and last year’s Epitaph: A Novel Of The O.K. Corral, chronicle the life and times of John Henry “Doc” Holliday, an Atlanta dentist-turned-Wild West gunfighter who sealed his place in Old West lore by making a stand alongside Wyatt Earp in a famed gunfight at the O.K. Corral in the Arizona territory in 1881.
Previous film versions of Doc Holliday include portrayals by Kirk Douglas (1957’s Gunfight At The O.K. Corral, Stacey Keach (1971’s Doc, written by Pete Hamill), Dennis Quaid (Kevin Costner’s 1994’s Wyatt Earp) and Val Kilmer (1993’s Tombstone).
“We are excited to re-introduce this classic American character to a whole new audience by chronicling Doc Holliday’s incredible transformation from Average Joe dentist to a man who Wyatt Earp called the ‘nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun [he] ever knew’, ” Renner and Handfield said in a joint statement. Added Frakes: “Jeremy Renner as Doc Holliday…fucking awesome.”
Doc by Mary Dora Russell is highly recommended by GothicWestern.com, you can grab a copy HERE.
