EPIX dives deep into the legend of
‘Billy the Kid’ Stories of Billy the Kid are bountiful, him to respect women, to read, and to but a new series is aiming to be the empathize with the underdog. definitive one on screen. “He had a beautiful singing voice,”
The legendary outlaw born Henry adds Hirst, also an executive producer Mccarty – but also known by the of the series, as are Justin Falvey and pseudonym William H. Bonney – first Darryl Frank of Steven Spielberg’s ran into trouble as an orphaned teen, Amblin Television. “He played musical and he wouldn’t live many years beyond instruments. He was incredibly that, killed at age 21 by lawman Pat sensitive. As he said himself, he was Garrett while a fugitive charged with more sinned-against than sinning. He’s committing several killings in the a wonderfully attractive character.” Lincoln County War. The saga is Blyth believes much of Billy the Kid’s recounted in the eight-episode EPIX relatability lies in the outlaw’s effort to series “Billy the Kid,” premiering make a life for himself, even a largely Sunday, April 24, and casting Tom illegal one. “I think we’ve created such a Blyth of HBO’S recent “The Gilded brutally honest show,” the actor reflects. Age” in the title role. Daniel Webber “You can see the kind of blood, sweat, also stars as Jesse Evans, whose lethal and tears and mud that went into gang was enlisted to oppose Billy in creating a life here, all these different that war, with Eileen O’higgins as societies all trying to build their own Billy’s mother. life in this kind of messy landscape.”
The drama’s writer, Michael Hirst Still, Hirst keeps a spotlight on the (“The Tudors,” “Vikings”), says he’s lawlessness that marked Billy’s iconic been “fascinated by Billy ever since I yet relatively brief existence. was a kid, actually. He’s like a rock star “He was absolutely fearless,” the of the West. I thought I knew things writer-producer maintains. “He would about him, but when I started doing work out ways of escaping, which is a the research, I realized that I knew great joy of writing about him because very, very little indeed. I had cliched we put him in this situation where ideas about him that he was probably it seems totally unlikely that he can psychopathic, that he was a born killer, escape it, and he always finds a way that he was a roughneck. What I didn’t to do it. It’s part of his charisma. Pat know about was his background, born Garrett even talks about that, with deep of Irish immigrants ... very devoted respect for the Billy it took him a long to his Catholic mother, who taught time to catch.”