Red Headed Stranger (film)

Red Headed Stranger is a 1986 American western drama film written and directed by William D. Wittliff. The film stars Willie Nelson and Morgan Fairchild. It is based on Nelsons album Red Headed Stranger 1975.

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 greenlighted the film with a budget ofmillion. The studio wanted Robert Redford to play the Red Headed Stranger, a role Nelson had envisioned for himself. It took two years, but Redford finally turned the part down. Nelson and Wittliff gave back their advances to buy the script back.HBO took an interest in the script and budgetedmillion 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 themillion on their own. The budget ended up at 1.8 million, coming from a diverse group of investors including Bud Shrake and Darrell Royal. ........

Source: Wikipedia