After "Basic Instinct" got America hot and bothered with its famous interrogation scene, no one was hotter than Sharon Stone, both literally and figuratively. Every studio in Hollywood wanted to cast the newly minted star in their biggest property, and Sony Pictures took their shot by bringing her the script that promised to blow away one classic Hollywood genre: the Western.
The Hollywood Western has been a boys' club for most, if not all, of its history. Populated by masculine figures like Clint
Eastwood and John Wayne, it seemed like this genre didn't have any room for women who weren't damsels in distress or a love interest who stayed on the family farms while the men went out to shoot and kill. That's what made Simon Moore's script for "The Quick and The Dead" such a hot commodity. Written as an homage and love letter to the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, the script flipped the genre on its head by putting a gun in a woman's hand as she embarks on a quest for bloody revenge in a dueling competition in a lawless frontier town.
Sony bought the rights to this spec script and took it to Sharon Stone, offering her the lead role. To sweeten the deal, she also received a co-producer credit with the ability to approve the hiring of key cast members and the film's director.
With that great power comes great responsibility, and Stone used it well by setting one condition for her to star in the film: that Sony Pictures hire Sam Raimi to direct the film.
Read more: The 15 Best Sequels To Bad Movies
Stone Fought - And Won - To Get Sam Raimi To Direct The Quick And The Dead
At the time "The Quick and the Dead" was coming together, Sam Raimi had already cemented his signature style of quick camera moves, montages on top of montages, and a heaping mixture of horror and comedy that made audiences shriek and squeal. His latest picture was his biggest yet: "Army of Darkness," the medieval horror comedy climax of The Evil Dead series that had the director commanding armies of evil skeletons.
It's a bizarre, unhinged movie, and Stone saw in Raimi someone who could handle the tricky tone of "The Quick and The Dead." Stone felt so strongly that Raimi was the man for the job that she gave Sony an ultimatum: if they didn't hire Sam Raimi to direct "The Quick and The Dead," she would walk away from the film entirely.
With Stone's backing, Raimi got the job, and together they crafted one of the best ensembles of Raimi's career. From the Good (Stone's co-stars include a young Russell Crowe in his first Hollywood picture and an even younger Leonardo DiCaprio), to the Bad (famously prickly Gene Hackman wasn't the easiest co-star but his performance as the authoritarian John Herod is one of the late actor's finest performances), and the Ugly (the film is positively chock full of craggy character actors like Keith David, Lance Henriksen and Tobin Bell), "The Quick and The Dead" is an underrated jewel of Sam Raimi's filmography.
In short, it f****** rules. And it's all because Sharon Stone stuck to her guns to get Sam Raimi in the director's seat.
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