Bad Girls (1994)

Interesting facts

• Filmed in: California

Bad Girls is a 1994 American Western film directed by Jonathan Kaplan, and written by Ken Friedman and Yolande Turner. It stars Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, and Drew Barrymore. The film follows four former prostitutes on the run following a justifiable homicide and prison escape, who later encounter difficulties involving bank robbery and Pinkerton detectives.

Production

The original director was Tamra Davis. The script, written by Yolande Finch and Davis' close friend Becky Johnston, was envisioned as an artsy film that would "foreground the political themes of the Western". Davis lobbied for New Line Cinema to make the film with her as the director. The budget was initially set at $6 million.

Just before filming began in Sonora, California, Davis was handed a 75-page script rewrite, and the actresses reportedly received only one day's worth of weapons training and a minimal amount of rehearsal time. Nine days into filming, Davis was fired.

In the wake of Davis' firing, Fox hired producer Lynda Obst, director Jonathan Kaplan, cinematographer Ralf Bode, and screenwriter Ken Friedman. The budget then went up to $20 million. Production was shut down for three weeks, during which the script was rewritten to be more action-oriented and the principal cast attended a "cowboy camp" supervised by stunt coordinator Walter Scott.

Stowe said, "I had actually liked the first script very much and would never have agreed to do it otherwise. But I guess it wasn't translating." Stowe later recalled the shoot as an unpleasant experience, with the only positive being that it introduced her to Texas, where she later bought a home.

The railroad scenes were filmed on the Sierra Railroad in Tuolumne County, California. When filming resumed with Kaplan, the production moved to Brackettville, Texas for eight weeks.

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