After four years of development, Sony has put James Mangold’s remake of 3:10 to Yuma in turnaround, just months before he was to start filming. There’s no word on why Sony is dropping the picture – it stars Russell Crowe and is being directed by the guy behind Walk the Line, so it seems like a fairly solid bet. Plus, Mangold claims the movie will be comparatively cheap: "This is a very middle-priced movie… I’ve never made a movie that has exceeded $60 million, and this one won’t either." Maybe Sony just needed that cash for Stealth II.
Mangold’s not giving up; he’s shopping the film to other studios, and still plans to start shooting in October. It turns out that even though Sony won’t be behind the film they’ll still make money off of it, as they own the rights to the Glenn Ford original.
3:10 to Yuma is a High Noon in reverse story: a small town sheriff captures a vicious outlaw and is bringing him to the nearest town with a train station so he can go to trial in Yuma, but the outlaw’s gang has other plans. At one point Tom Cruise was rumored for the outlaw role, but it seems that has gone the way of Xenu. You would think that Cruise would still be a big enough star to keep a movie alive.
What it comes down to is that this is a Western, and we need more Westerns. Even though I found Walk the Line mediocre and even though I think Mangold has only made one even remotely good film, Copland, I am rooting for all Westerns to get made.