the battle and preparing a draft script. They hired John Ford's son Patrick (who wrote a screenplay about the battle in 1948) as a research assistant. As the script neared completion, however, Wayne and Herbert Yates, the president of Republic Pictures, clashed over the proposed $3 million budget. Wayne left Republic over the feud but was unable to take his script with him. That script later was rewritten and made into the movie The Last Command with Jim Bowie the character of focus. Wayne and producer Robert Fellows formed Batjac, their own production company. As Wayne developed his vision of what a movie about the Alamo should be, he concluded he did not want to risk seeing that vision changed; he would produce and direct the movie himself, though not act in it. However, he was unable to enlist financial support for the project without the presumptive box-office guarantee his on-screen appearance would provide. In 1956, he signed with United Artists; UA would contribute $2.5 million to the movie's development and serve as distributor. In exchange, Batjac was to contribute an additional $1.5 to $2.5 million, and Wayne would star in the movie. Wayne secured the remainder of the financing from wealthy Texans who insisted the movie be shot in Texas. After the movie was finished, Wayne admitted he invested $1.5 million of his own money in the film (taking out second mortgages on his houses and using his vehicles as collateral to obtain loans) and believed it was a good investment. Set The movie set, later known as Alamo Village, was constructed near Brackettville, Texas, on the ranch of James T. Shahan. Chatto Rodriquez, the general contractor of the set, built of tarred roads for access to the set from Brackettville. His men sank six wells to provide 12,000 gallons of water each day, and laid miles of sewage and water lines. They also built of horse corrals. Rodriquez worked with art designer Alfred Ybarra to create the set. Historians Randy Roberts and James Olson describe it as "the most authentic set in the history of the movies". Over a million-and-a-quarter adobe bricks were formed by hand to create the walls of the former Alamo Mission. The set was an extensive three-quarter-scale replica of the mission, and has been used in other Western films and television series, including other depictions of the battle. It took almost two years to