Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell and Stone Village Television officials have picked up the rights to author Charles Leerhsen's book, 'Butch Cassidy: The True Story of an American Outlaw'.
- October 2, 2021
AceShowbiz - Classic Robert Redford and Paul Newman movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" is galloping to TV.
Scott Steindorff and Dylan Russell and Stone Village Television officials have picked up the rights to author Charles Leerhsen's book, "Butch Cassidy: The True Story of an American Outlaw", and they're adapting the tale for a new TV western series.
The project will be geared towards a Latin American audience, with Steindorff explaining, "Much of the book and the adventures of The Sundance Kid... takes place in South America."
He tells The Hollywood Reporter, "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."
Newman played Cassidy and Redford the Sundance Kid in director George Roy Hill's 1969 movie, which ranks among the American Film Institute's 100 Great American Films.
"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."
Leerhsen continued, "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 then added, "He's as at-home with my book and its characters as Butch Cassidy was on the Outlaw Trail."
