Friday Film Noir
Three Amigos! (1986) is a western comedy directed by John Landis and written by Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, and Randy Newman. Fired by their Hollywood studio, silent-screen actors Lucky Day (Steve Martin), Dusty Bottoms (Chevy Chase), and Ned Nederlander (Martin Short) accept a telegram invitation to a small Mexican village. Believing they have been hired to put on a show as their famous cowboy characters, the actors arrive to discover the villagers actually expect them to defend the town against a ruthless bandit leader named El Guapo (Alfonso Arau). Steve Martin began writing the screenplay in 1980 under the title The Three Caballeros , intending to star alongside Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi. The project stalled following the death of Belushi, while Aykroyd left the production to make Ghostbusters . Steven Spielberg expressed interest in directing between 1981 and 1982, wanting to cast Martin, Bill Murray, and Robin Williams, but stepped away to direct E.T. the Extra...