FOX is teaming Tom Fontana to develop a limited-run drama about Billy the Kid.
The potential event series would tell the origin story of one of the Old West's most notorious outlaws. The project is set at a time when America was in its most vibrant and colorful adolescence -- from the 1860s slums of New York to the violent and lawless American West of the 1870s. Yet, despite its historical backdrop, Billy the Kid is a story with surprising relevancy, focusing on America's twin obsession with two seemingly timeless subjects: celebrity and guns.
Born William Henry McCarty, Billy the Kid was said to have killed 21 men -- his first at age 16 -- before his own demise at 21. A true original gangster, Billy the Kid was the first American celebrated in his own time as an outlaw hero. But the legend ultimately grew larger than the man himself and proved to be his undoing, as he spent the final years of his short life in a relentless battle to clear his own name. The series examines the various mythologies that have sprouted up about Billy's life, making use of all the conflicting facts to paint a more three-dimensional portrait of this American folk hero.
Fontana will pen the project, which hails from by Halfire-CORE Entertainment and the Levinson/Fontana Company. Barry Levinson is on board to exec produce.
Source: THR
The potential event series would tell the origin story of one of the Old West's most notorious outlaws. The project is set at a time when America was in its most vibrant and colorful adolescence -- from the 1860s slums of New York to the violent and lawless American West of the 1870s. Yet, despite its historical backdrop, Billy the Kid is a story with surprising relevancy, focusing on America's twin obsession with two seemingly timeless subjects: celebrity and guns.
Born William Henry McCarty, Billy the Kid was said to have killed 21 men -- his first at age 16 -- before his own demise at 21. A true original gangster, Billy the Kid was the first American celebrated in his own time as an outlaw hero. But the legend ultimately grew larger than the man himself and proved to be his undoing, as he spent the final years of his short life in a relentless battle to clear his own name. The series examines the various mythologies that have sprouted up about Billy's life, making use of all the conflicting facts to paint a more three-dimensional portrait of this American folk hero.
Fontana will pen the project, which hails from by Halfire-CORE Entertainment and the Levinson/Fontana Company. Barry Levinson is on board to exec produce.
Source: THR
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