Development

Variety first reported in January 1992 that Warner Bros. had optioned the film rights to Michael Garrison's television show The Wild Wild West, and hired Richard Donner to direct a film adaptation written by Shane Black, with Mel Gibson in the role of Jim West (Donner coincidentally directed three episodes of the original series). However, Donner and Gibson left the project to work on a film adaptation of Maverick (another film based on a Western TV series) in 1994. Despite this, the project continued in the development stage, with Tom Cruise rumored for the lead in 1995. Cruise instead starred in a film adaptation of Mission: Impossible the following year.^[6]

Discussions with Will Smith and Barry Sonnenfeld began in February 1997 after the two had wrapped up production on Men in Black for Columbia Pictures the same year.^[7] Warner Bros. pursued George Clooney to co-star with Smith as Artemus Gordon, with Kevin Kline, Matthew McConaughey and Johnny Depp also in contention for the role while screenwriters S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock (best known for writing the Short Circuit and Tremors films) were hired by the studio to script the film between April and May 1997.^[8] Clooney signed on the following August after dropping out of Jack Frost, while the Wilson-Maddock script was rewritten by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman (best known for writing the films Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Doc Hollywood).^[9] However in December 1997, Clooney was replaced by Kline after an agreement with Sonnenfeld: "Ultimately, we all decided that rather than damage this project trying to retrofit the role for me, it was better to step aside and let them get someone else."^[10]

Writing

The film featured several significant changes from the television series. For instance, Dr. Loveless, as portrayed by Kenneth Branagh in the film, went from a dwarf to a man without legs who uses a steam-powered wheelchair (similar to that employed by the villain in the episode "The Night of the Brain"); his first name was also changed from Miguelito to Arliss and was given the motive of a Southerner who sought the defeat of the North after the Civil War. Kevin Kline plays Artemus Gordon in the film, whose character was similar to the show's version of him portrayed by Ross Martin, except that he was much more egotistical than Jim West. The film depicted Kline's Gordon creating more ridiculous, humorous and implausible inventions than those created by Martin's Gordon in the original series, as well as having an aggressive rivalry with West, unlike in the television series where he and West had a very close friendship and trusted each other with their lives. While Gordon did indeed impersonate Grant in three episodes of the series ("The Night of the Steel Assassin", "The Night of the Colonel's Ghost" and "The Night of the Big Blackmail"), they were not played by the same actor. Additionally, West was originally portrayed by Robert Conrad, a Caucasian rather than an African American, which serves a critical plot point as West's parents were among the victims of Loveless's massacre at New Liberty.

Jon Peters produced the film alongside director Sonnenfeld. In a 2002 Q&A event that appears on An Evening with Kevin Smith, filmmaker Kevin Smith talked about working as a screenwriter for Peters on a fifth potential Superman film in 1997. He revealed that Peters demanded, among other things, that Superman fight a giant spider in the third act.^[11] After Batman director Tim Burton came onboard, Smith's script was scrapped and the film was never produced due to further complications. A year later, he noted that Wild Wild West, with Peters on board as producer, was released with the inclusion of a giant mechanical spider in the final act.^[12] Neil Gaiman also revealed that Peters insisted that a giant mechanical spider be included in a proposed film adaptation of The Sandman.^[13]

Filming

Principal photography was set to begin in January 1998, but was pushed three months later to April 22, 1998.^[14] The interior sequences on the trains of both Artemus Gordon and Dr. Loveless were shot on sets at Warner Bros. Burbank Studios, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, while the exterior sequences were shot in Idaho on the Camas Prairie Railroad. The Wanderer in the film is portrayed by the Baltimore & Ohio 4–4–0 No. 25, one of the oldest operating steam locomotives in the U.S. Built in 1856 at the Mason Machine Works in Taunton, Massachusetts, it was later renamed The William Mason in honor of its manufacturer.^[15] During preproduction, the engine was sent to the steam shops at the Strasburg Rail Road for restoration and repainting.^[15] The locomotive is brought out for the B&O Train Museum in Baltimore's "Steam Days". The William Mason and the Inyo (which was the locomotive used in the original television series) both appeared in the 1956 Disney film The Great Locomotive Chase.

Much of the Wild West footage was shot around Santa Fe, New Mexico, particularly at the western town film set at the Cook Movie Ranch (now Cerro Pelon Ranch). During the shooting of a sequence involving stunts and pyrotechnics, a planned building fire grew out of control and quickly overwhelmed the local fire crews that were standing by. Much of the town was destroyed before the fire was contained.^[16]

Music

The orchestral film score, including its main theme, was composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein, a veteran of many Western film scores such as The Magnificent Seven. The score mainly follows the Western genre's symphonic tradition, while at times also acknowledging the film's anachronistic playfulness by employing a more contemporary music style with notable rock percussion and electronic organ. The score also briefly incorporates Richard Markowitz's theme from the original television series in one cue (uncredited in the film and not included on the album); ironically, this was one of the film's few elements that were faithful to the series, which also did not credit Markowitz for the theme. Additional parts of the score were composed by Bernstein's son Peter, while his daughter Emilie served as one of the orchestrators and producers.

Like most of his films during this period, Will Smith recorded a hip hop song based on the film's plot, also titled "Wild Wild West". "Wild Wild West" was a number-one hit on the U.S. pop charts, though it also won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song. It was produced by Rob Fusari, who lifted a sample from Stevie Wonder's 1976 hit "I Wish". The song also features guest vocals from R&B group Dru Hill, and was a star-making vehicle for Dru Hill lead singer Sisqó. Old-school rapper Kool Moe Dee had previously recorded a "Wild Wild West" single of his own in 1987, to which he re-performs the chorus from his old "Wild Wild West" as the chorus of this new "Wild Wild West". A performance of the song by Smith, Dee, Dru Hill and Sisqo at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards also included Wonder performing a reprise of the chorus on piano.^[17]

Score Deluxe Edition

Marketing

Warner Bros. heavily promoted Wild Wild West as an anticipated summer blockbuster instead of Brad Bird's animated film The Iron Giant, which was released two months after Wild Wild West. This sparked controversy as The Iron Giant was becoming more critically successful than the critically-panned Wild Wild West upon release, despite eventually underperforming at the box office due to the studio deciding to spend their money on marketing for Wild Wild West among other films.^[20][21]

Home media

Warner Home Video released Wild Wild West on VHS and DVD on November 30, 1999, on LaserDisc on December 28, 1999,^[22] and on Blu-ray on May 29, 2011.^[23]

Box office

Wild Wild West grossed $27,687,484 during its opening weekend, with a total of $40,957,789 for the Independence Day weekend and ranking first at the North American box office.^[24] It dropped into second place below American Pie in its second weekend, making $16.8 million.^[25] The film ended its theatrical run on October 10, 1999 after five months, having grossed $113,804,681 domestically and $108,300,000 overseas for a worldwide total of $222,104,681 against a production budget of $170 million, making it commercially unsuccessful.^[2]

Critical response

Wild Wild West was met with generally negative reviews from film critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 16% based on reviews from 131 critics, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Bombastic, manic, and largely laugh-free, Wild Wild West is a bizarre misfire in which greater care was lavished upon the special effects than on the script."^[26] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 38 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".^[27] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.^[28]

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one star out of four, writing that "Wild Wild West is a comedy dead zone. You stare in disbelief as scenes flop and die. The movie is all concept and no content; the elaborate special effects are like watching money burn on the screen."^[29] Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, saying that the film "leaves reality so far behind that its storytelling would be arbitrary even by comic-book standards, and its characters share no common ground or emotional connection."^[30]

Accolades

Robert Conrad, who played Jim West in the original television series, arrived at the 20th Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony to collect in person three Razzies the film won to express his objections to the film.

Wild Wild West later ranked in the listed bottom 20 of the Stinkers' "100 Years, 100 Stinkers" list (which noted the 100 worst films of the 20th century) at #2, but lost to Battlefield Earth.^[32][33]