Maverick
Short description
Bret Maverick is a gambler who prefers trickery to gunplay, but his talent for talking his way out of trouble has left him short of the money he needs. A high-stakes poker tournament is about to be held aboard a riverboat, and the entry fee is steep. On his way there, Maverick encounters Annabelle Bransford, an equally cunning card player who charms men out of their money, and Marshal Zane Cooper, and the three become uneasy travelling companions. A grudge-bearing opponent named Angel and other rivals complicate the journey, and Maverick must scrape together the sum required before the game begins.
Richard Donner directed this 1994 western comedy, the twelfth of the eighteen films he directed in chronological order, arriving between Two-Fisted Tales and Assassins. William Goldman wrote the screenplay, and Donner produced alongside Bruce Davey. Mel Gibson plays Bret Maverick, Jodie Foster plays Annabelle Bransford, and James Garner, who had played the character on television decades earlier, appears as Marshal Zane Cooper. Graham Greene, Alfred Molina and James Coburn round out the principal cast, with 70 credited cast members and 185 credited crew.
Made for about 75 million dollars, the film took roughly 183 million dollars worldwide, a comfortable return. On IMDb it holds 7 out of 10 from around 126,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.9 out of 10 from a much smaller pool of 1,844 votes. A critics' rating of 5.9 out of 10 from 55 reviews places it below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- James Garner, who played Zane Cooper (Kupa) in the original 1957 film, played Bret Maverick. The name Zane Cooper was created from the surname of actor Gary Cooper and the first name of Zane Grey, author of many popular Westerns.
- The film features cameos by many stars of Westerns and country music, especially during the poker championship.
- Jodie Foster's clumsiness in the film is evident from her very first scene, when she expected Mel Gibson's character to help her down from the stagecoach, but he simply took her umbrella. Foster's character tried to get down on her own, but stumbled and fell. The film's director, Richard Donner (1930-2021), liked the scene so much that he began to include other similar scenes in the film, where Foster's character trips, or is thrown out the window, etc.
- When Marshal Cooper explains the rules of the poker tournament to those gathered, he takes out his own revolvers and says that only his firearms are present and may be present in the room. He drops one revolver at this point but continues speaking as if nothing had happened, and the dropped revolver is immediately picked up and handed to him. This detail was not in the script. James Garner (1928-2014), who played the role, accidentally dropped the revolver, but didn't react, and the director was so delighted with the situation that he decided to leave the scene in the film.
- Mel Gibson specifically trained to quickly draw his revolver from its holster.
- In the final scene, Mel Gibson's character reveals his cards one by one. Nowadays, this is considered bad etiquette.
- Filming took place from August 16 to December 10, 1993.
- One of the players in the first card scene, the 'shooter', introduces himself as 'Johnny Hardin'. The real John Wesley Hardin was one of the most famous gunfighters in the American Wild West, having killed over 40 people in his lifetime.
- The episode where Maverick finds the robber played by Danny Glover's face very familiar is a reference to the popular 'Lethal Weapon' franchise at the time, where Mel Gibson and Glover starred as police partners.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
