Sitting proudly at over 10,000 feet, Leadville, Colorado is America’s highest town and the old high street is a largely intact museum to its former mining glories. By 1880, Leadville was one of the world’s largest and richest silver camps, with a population of more than 15,000. Income from the mines mounted to over $15m a year. The crown jewel of the remaining buildings from that era is the Silver Dollar Saloon, which dates from 1879. I know that I am not alone in finding the Silver Dollar Saloon as good a canvas on which to tell wild west stories as there is in America. To step inside is to step back 130 years. I had scouted the bar twice during COVID and it was always my intent to film there. It is also not far from Vail, which is a bit of a hub these days for our team. My leaning was to build a story around a period set. It seemed lame to do anything else in the Silver Dollar. But for a place as special as this, I was anxious to play my best cards in terms of the talent. I persuaded my fellow Brit - Cara Delevingne - to join us again as she is bright as well as magnetically beautiful. I see her as much as an actor as a model and she has never been anything other than magnificent with us. It was, however, my fellow Scot and Hollywood heavyweight - Gerard Butler - who gave this photograph so much power. I don’t know enough
A list actors to be able to make an informed opinion and, of course, I am biased, but Gerry must surely be as
normal and unaffected an actor as Hollywood can offer. He has a look and a build made for Western stories and we joked about why he has not had more roles in this genre. He is also very talented at his day job, ask him for a look and he obliges. I gave Cara and Gerry many directives that day and they both smashed it, especially in this one split second. Britain has talent and I am proud to know them both. The photograph works as well as I could have hoped and the wolf played his part.