Crowe And Howard Abandon 'The Alamo'

Posted Tuesday, August 20, 2002 at 3:04 PM Central

by John Couture

The way it's shaping up, it looks as though the film version of The Alamo will have more deserters than the actual battle it's based on. The latest casualties include the project's most ardent supporters, Russell Crowe and Ron Howard.

According to a piece in Entertainment Weekly, it seems that the biggest stumbling block was money. Allegedly, the Beautiful Mind crew made outrageous monetary demands to the tune of guaranteed salaries against a back-end of 37 cents on the box office dollar, whichever is bigger.

And the guarantees aren't anything to sniff at. Crowe demanded $20 million for his cameo role. Director Howard requested $10 million in addition to the $7 million for Imagine Entertainment, the co-production company he happens to own with producer Brian Grazer.

It's a shame that the meaning of the story is getting lost in all the dollar signs. I'm sure Davy Crockett would have taken must less to portray himself in the movie...