‘Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid’ TV-Series Gets Adapted

Producers Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell’s Stone Village TV has acquired the TV rights for the book Butch Cassidy: The True Story of an American Outlaw by Charles Leerhsen on the famed outlaw.

The last time these characters were even adapted to the screen was back in the business when Paul Newman and Robert Redford was in the leads in 1969.

“Much of the book and the adventures of The Sundance Kid (Cassidy’s partner Harry Longabaugh) and the ‘Wild Bunch’ gang takes place in South America. 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,” Steindorff said.

No outlet like cable or streamer is attached to the TV adaption, Stone Village TV plans to self-finance and target the international audience. The main story takes place in Latin America, their main audience and ending in Bolivia.

“Scott seems to me uniquely qualified to explore the Butch Cassidy story as a TV series,” said author 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.”

The original film from 1969 has been in the National Film Registry in 2003 and are regarded as one of the best American films ever made.

Source: THR.Com