Amazon is planning the series “Butch And Sundance” for its own streaming service PrimeVideo. Kaz and Ryan Firpo, who are responsible for the comic adaptation “Eternals” for Marvel, are to write the script. The series will be produced by brothers Joe and Anthony Russo, who are best known for their MCU films “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers: Endgame”. And the two legendary Western outlaws are set to embody two currently highly-touted stars – while putting a new spin on the story.
As Butch Cassidy, we will see “Bridgerton” star Regé-Jean Page. His comrade-in-arms, whom everyone just calls The Sundance Kid, is to be embodied by Glen Powell, who last appeared in “Top Gun 2”. Both stars are already actively involved in the development of the series, will produce it with the Russos and have also participated in the selection of the writers. However, the project is still in an early stage of development, so it is not yet clear how many episodes will be produced in the end.
imageNext to Regé-Jean Page (see article picture) the second main actor: Glen Powell.
Page and Powell are not exactly to follow in the footsteps of Paul Newman and Robert Redford, however. They famously played the outlaw couple in “Two Bandits”, which is not only for us one of the best westerns of all time. The American Film Institute even included “Two Bandits” in its selection of the 100 best Hollywood films made.
NOT THE REAL STORY, BUT AN ALTERNATIVE AMERICA
“Butch And Sundance” is said to be inspired by the classic, but will now just not be a series remake of it, but is said to be set in an alternative version of America. The Hollywood Reporter cites the series “For All Mankind” and “The Man In The High Castle” as comparisons, in which certain events in the story have also taken a different course, so that the world in the series is a slightly different one. In the acclaimed AppleTV+ series “For All Mankind” the Russians won the race to the moon, in the Amazon production “The Man In The High Castle” the Nazis won World War II.
What event happened differently in the world of “Butch And Sundance” is not yet known. The real Butch Cassidy, born Robert Leroy Parker, lived from 1866 to presumably 1908 and is considered the Robin Hood of the Wild West because he allegedly also stole the cattle of large ranchers who wanted to displace smaller farmers. He gradually gathered a gang around him, with whom he mainly robbed trains and banks over the years.
A well-known member of the gang is Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, who was probably born in 1867, was presumably shot together with Butch Cassidy in Bolivia in 1908 and is actually only known under the name of the Sundance Kid.
How her story will be reinterpreted in an alternative setting on Amazon is something we might see in the future. It could still take a little while though, as the series is still in an early stage of development as mentioned.
