Read this: Bounce into the story of Wild Wild West’s off-camera chaos
Early on in Mel Magazine’s look at the comically doomed production of the 1999 Will Smith/Kevin Kline vehicle Wild Wild West, writer Ralph Jones makes one absolutely correct assertion, and it’s one that will not surprise you: The tie-in title track was, without question, the best part of that movie.
We’re including the video here because it is the best possible soundtrack for “The Inside Story Of How Wild Wild West Spun Out Of Control,” a wild, wild piece of writing full of little quotes and tidbits that are just perfect. Perfect. Wonderful, perfect sentences you never knew you needed to read, perfect little pieces of a thoroughly entertaining whole. Perhaps at this point, you might think we’ve used the word ‘perfect’ too many times, but read this brief excerpt and see if you feel the same way. To set the scene, screenwriters Brent Maddock and Steven Wilson—two of the six writers credited on the film—are meeting with Jon Peters, who produced Wild Wild West alongside director Barry Sonnenfeld:
When he explained there would be a scene in which Jim West rides on horseback through the night in order to meet the president, Peters stopped him. “Horse?” he said. “Horses are boring.”