Stone Village Television is developing a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid limited TV series adaptation.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show will draw from author Charles Leerhsen’s non-fiction book Butch Cassidy: The True Story of an American Outlaw. Stone Village's Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell plan to self-finance the series before taking it to cable networks and streaming services.
“Much of [Leerhsen’s] book and the adventures of The Sundance Kid (Cassidy’s partner Harry Longabaugh) and the ‘Wild Bunch’ gang takes place in South America," said Steindorff. "During that time period, Butch Cassidy and his gang were more well-known there than in North America. This isn’t just an American Western story, but a Latin American story, and it needs to be told. There are so many aspects of this story that will excite the audiences of today."
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's story was famously adapted into a western movie in 1969, with Paul Newman and Robert Redford playing the respective characters. Directed by George Roy Hill and written by William Goldman (The Princess Bride), the film was a box office success and is now considered by many to be one of the greatest Hollywood westerns of all time. In 1979, Superman II and III director Richard Lester helmed a prequel to the movie titled Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, but it was far less successful and has largely been forgotten over the decades since then.
“Scott seems to me uniquely qualified to explore the Butch Cassidy story as a TV series,” said Leerhsen. “He’s been a lifelong fan of the movie and was a colleague and friend to Paul Newman, who to many people is Butch. But beyond that he is as excited as I was to discover that the movie, as great as it was, left out some of the most intriguing parts of Butch and Sundance’s great adventure. Scott is drawn to the fact that there’s so much untapped drama and romance in the true tale -- as well as a mind-blowing finale that the Hollywood of 50-something years ago felt it just couldn’t handle. He’s as at-home with my book and its characters as Butch Cassidy was on the Outlaw Trail.”
Stone Village has yet to announce a cast or crew for its Butch Cassidy series.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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