I remember trying to find the McGuane book that Rancho Deluxe came from a few years ago — only to find out there wasn’t one. McGuane wrote it as a screenplay. Not sure why, but I remember a line that Slim Pickens had in the film. After he’d seen a cow shot by one of the cattle rustlers Sharp’s 50 caliber rifle — he said: ‘That holes big enough to throw a cat through.’ Or rather McGuane said that when he wrote the dialogue. Few realize — that without screenwriters — you got no movies. Best kept secret in Hollywoodland. So when you say you loved Luke Wilson in ‘Before Midnight’ — what you were really reacting to was the writing. The blueprint. Write it here and it comes out there…
Funny too. McGuane said that ‘Ranch Deluxe’ and ‘The Missouri Breaks’ were the same movie. Someone commented last night that Jeff Bridges met his wife on the set of Ranch Deluxe. She was a maid. An actual maid, not movie maid. I would strongly suspect that that’s why we like Jeff Bridges so much. He cuts his own path…