Red Headed Stranger

Red Headed Stranger (1986)

Reverend Julian Shay (Willie Nelson) strode into the saloon, pulled out his six-shooter, and killed his adulterous wife (Morgan Fairchild) and the man she had left him for. It was the beginning of his violent transformation from God-Loving preacher to ruthless outlaw.

Date of release
1986-10-31
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (14)
Runtime
1h 45m
Genres
Western
Director
William D. Wittliff

Casting

Interesting facts

Red Headed Stranger is a 1986 American independent Western drama film written and directed by William D. Wittliff. The film stars Willie Nelson and Morgan Fairchild. It is based on Nelson's album Red Headed Stranger (1975).

Production

Wittliff met Willie Nelson in the late 1970s. Wittliff was a writer on Honeysuckle Rose (1980) and Barbarosa (1982), which both starred Nelson. Nelson played his Red Headed Stranger for Wittliff, and Wittliff agreed to write a script based on the musical storyline. Wittliff finished a draft in 1979 and Universal Studios green-lighted the film with a budget of $14 million.

HBO took an interest in the script and budgeted $5 million to produce it. Sam Peckinpah was attached to direct the film, but Peckinpah was unhappy with the low budget and left the project. The project died at HBO and Nelson and Wittliff began to raise the $5 million on their own. The budget ended up at $1.8 million, coming from a diverse group of investors, including Bud Shrake and Darrell Royal.

Red Headed Stranger began production on April 29, 1985. The main set, a western town nicknamed "Willieville," had been built over the previous two years across the road from Nelson's golf course, thirty miles west of Austin, Texas. Most of the filming was done in "Willieville," but nine other locations around Central Texas were also used. Production wrapped on June 14, 1985.

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