Speaking of the "Sons of Lee Marvin"-phenomenon in 2000, Jarmusch mentioned an early unrealized film idea:
"It all started years ago with an idea I had for a movie where Lee Marvin was a father with three sons who all hated each other, and he was an alcoholic guy and lived in a barn somewhere. It was one of those ideas that gradually became more interesting to me, then Lee Marvin crossed over to the other side."
Asked by an audience member after a screening of "Year of the Horse" in 1999 to further explain the Lee Marvin-connection, Jim Jarmusch answered:
"Well, I wanted to make a film, years and years ago, called The Sun Song [*]… Well, it wasn’t going to be called this, but, it was basically going to have Lee Marvin in it and then Tom Waits, and John Lurie, and then another friend named Richard Boes. And all of us look, a little bit, like we could be related to Lee Marvin. And then Lee died and we started this secret organization called “The Sons of Lee Marvin.” And, it does exist, this organization, as you saw. I gave John Boorman a card, he’s an honorary member now. So, I love Lee Marvin… He’s a hell of an actor."
* Should probably be "The Son Song"