{"id":458299,"date":"2026-10-06T20:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T20:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458299\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T20:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T20:02:15","slug":"once-upon-a-time-in-texas-gets-a-reimagining-of-dallas-outlaws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458299\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Once Upon a Time in Texas’ gets a reimagining of Dallas outlaws"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long before Dallas had a skyline, a tollway or a single overpriced craft cocktail, it had a dentist named John Henry Holliday. In the 1870s, the man history would remember as \u201cDoc\u201d filled cavities in a young frontier town and, by most accounts, emptied a few bottles along the way. Few people driving down Main Street today know they are retracing the steps of one of the West\u2019s most famous gunslingers. Texas filmmaker Tanner Beard<\/a> would like to change that.<\/p>\n

In 2011, Beard made his first feature, a Western called \u201cThe Legend of Hell\u2019s Gate: An American Conspiracy,\u201d which premiered at the Dallas International Film Festival<\/a> that same year. It was ambitious and personal, and it was among the first Westerns ever shot on the RED ONE digital camera. It was also, in Beard\u2019s view, unfinished. Fifteen years later, he is back in the saddle. The result is \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Texas,\u201d a full reimagining that pairs digitally remastered footage from the original shoot with roughly 20 minutes of newly filmed material, a brand-new score, fresh visual effects and a new narrative spine.<\/p>\n

That backbone belongs to Isaac McKinnon (Clive Standen), a new character whose search for his long-lost brother carries the story from San Francisco in 1905 back to Texas in 1876. Along the way, history and legend collide as the cast of Lou Taylor Pucci, Eric Balfour and Henry Thomas<\/a> return in a story that now runs straight through Dallas.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Arts & Culture newsletter to get the latest stories delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n

THANK YOU!<\/p>\n

You’re all set.<\/p>\n

CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

From the \u201cmiddle of nowhere\u201d to the gates of hell<\/p>\n

Beard\u2019s love of Texas lore started at home, in a town most Dallasites could not find without a GPS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m from Snyder, Texas, originally,\u201d Beard says. \u201cIt\u2019s 80 miles south of Lubbock, 80 miles north of Abilene, 80 miles east of Midland. We call it the middle of nowhere. But it\u2019s home to the killing of the white buffalo in 1876, which I actually touch on in this movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The town takes its name from William Henry \u201cPete\u201d Snyder, a trader from the buffalo-hunting era.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of cool that the white buffalo, this majestic creature, comes from the story of how my hometown came to be,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tanner Beard behind the camera on the set of his debut feature, later reimagined as \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s original title came from a different childhood haunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up going to Possum Kingdom Lake,\u201d Beard says. \u201cI was fascinated to hear the legend of Hell\u2019s Gate, like, how Hell\u2019s Gate got its name, and I found out it was this cool Western story.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tale, as Beard tells it, involves a band of men fleeing pursuers through the canyon. One of them declared he would go through the gates of hell before he let himself get caught. In the film, Balfour\u2019s character, Will, delivers that very vow while refusing to abandon a heavy load of cargo.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that we leave here is like leaving gold in the grave,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

The greatest saloon night Dallas never recorded<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s biggest addition is a sprawling Dallas sequence. It rests on a delicious historical \u201cwhat if\u201d that Beard stumbled upon during research.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoc Holliday, around that time, was a dentist in Dallas and had his first recorded gunfight on Main Street,\u201d he says. \u201cBass Reeves was actually a bounty hunter around that time. Sam Bass was an outlaw running around the Chisholm Trail. And Belle Starr, the famous female outlaw, was around during that time in Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The local connections hold up. Belle Starr spent part of her youth in Scyene, a settlement just east of Dallas. Sam Bass later made North Texas his hunting ground, robbing trains around the Dallas area before his final stand in Round Rock in 1878. Bass Reeves, who inspired a generation of lawmen and plenty of modern TV, worked the territory just north of the Red River.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if they all intersected through the Legend of Hell\u2019s Gates,\u201d Beard asks.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the kind of question that makes Westerns irresistible: the proven record on one side, the campfire story on the other and a whole lot of mythology in between.<\/p>\n

A director in conversation with his younger self<\/p>\n

Few filmmakers get to revisit their debut. Even fewer get to rebuild it from the ground up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was 15 years ago. That was the first movie I ever made,\u201d Beard says. \u201cAnd so now I\u2019ve gotten to come back and do a kind of an anniversary director\u2019s cut.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" Dallas\u2019 Glenn Morshower as J.H. Gordon and Russell Quinn Cummings as King Fisher.<\/p>\n

\"\"Eric Balfour and director-actor Tanner Beard in \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Texas\u201d; Balfour also appeared in the 2003 remake of \u201cThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"San Antonio\u2019s Henry Thomas as John St. Helen in \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

What began as a restoration soon became something larger.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI shot additional footage because I just didn\u2019t feel like the conversation I started when I was 25 was really properly [finished],\u201d he says. \u201cMy 25-year-old self got to collaborate with my 40-year-old self and finished the first movie that I never made.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new title reflects that growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be called \u2018The Legend of Hell\u2019s Gate,\u2019 and it\u2019s just not what we did with this reimagining,\u201d Beard says. \u201cOf course, it should be \u2018Once Upon a Time in Texas\u2019 \u2026 with all of the stories in it and the love letter back to Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Homegrown talent and Texas heart<\/p>\n

With his new frontier, Beard filled the story with a cast of actors with Texas roots.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many Texans were cast as these characters because the talent pool here should start from here,\u201d he says. \u201cJenna Dewan grew up in Dallas. Summer Glau is from Southern Texas. Kevin Alejandro, Henry Thomas and Glenn Morshower are from Texas. Barry Tubb is from Snyder\u2026 they\u2019re all from Texas, so it\u2019s a beautiful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That conviction runs deeper than casting, too. Beard, who also appears in the hit series \u201cLandman,\u201d<\/a> founded Silver Sail Studios in Fort Worth<\/a> to give North Texas productions a permanent home. When asked why the region can compete with Los Angeles or Atlanta, his answer has nothing to do with tax incentives.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow about heart,\u201d he says. \u201cYou get here, and you\u2019re around people who have enough pride in themselves and enough self-worth that when they put their name on something, they care. The crews, the people, the heart and the magic that happens here in Texas are the reasons I wanted to build a studio here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaving a good set of tracks<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s emotional core comes from Beard\u2019s own family. Late in the story, Pucci\u2019s character, Kelly H. Browning, reflects on old regrets and offers a simple lesson: \u201cAlways leave a good set of tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my dad\u2019s mantra,\u201d Beard says. \u201cHe\u2019s been saying that to me for most of my life. It\u2019s just, \u2018Hey, leave a good set of tracks behind you.\u2019 You know, don\u2019t do anything in this life that you\u2019re not proud of, and you don\u2019t have to be looking over your shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fifteen years after his debut, Beard has doubled back to make sure his own tracks are exactly where he wants them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Upon A Time in Texas\u201d opens statewide Oct. 16 and hits on-demand Nov. 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long before Dallas had a skyline, a tollway or a single overpriced craft cocktail, it had a dentist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,64,5440,4660],"class_list":["post-458299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-events","tag-first-look","tag-interviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}