High Noon 2004, The 1981 science fiction film "Outland", starring Sean Connery as a federal agent on an interplanetary mining outpost, has been compared to "High Noon" due to similarities in themes and plot. The plot for the 1987 high school comedy film Three O'Clock High was loosely based on "High Noon". A teen desperately attempts to avoid a fight with a menacing bully, set to happen at 3 o'clock. "High Noon" is referenced several times on the HBO drama series "The Sopranos". Tony Soprano cites Gary Cooper's character as the archetype of what a man should be, mentally tough and stoic.
High Noon were making together. Fleischer says his RKO contract prevented him from directing "High Noon". John Wayne was originally offered the lead role in the film, but turned it down because he felt that Foreman's story was an obvious allegory against blacklisting, which he actively supported. Later, he told an interviewer that he would "never regret having helped run [Foreman] out of the country". Cooper was Wayne's longtime friend, and shared his conservative political views; he had been a "friendly witness" before HUAC, but did not implicate anyone as a suspected Communist, and later became a vigorous opponent of blacklisting. Ironically,