“There were a lot of things wrong”: the 1986 movie Jeff Bridges “wishes he had back” to do all over again

The 1986 crime film *8 Million Ways to Die*, starring Jeff Bridges, was a troubled adaptation of Lawrence Block’s novel. Block says Bridges later told him it was a film he wished he could redo, while the author attributes its problems to production delays, creative disagreements and the studio taking final cut from director Hal Ashby.

Oliver Stone initially planned to write and direct the film, but left to make *Platoon*. Block declined to collaborate on the screenplay, a choice he later regretted, and objected to moving the story from New York to California. Critics disliked the film and audiences largely ignored it, though Block praised Bridges’s performance and said the film helped pay his mortgage.