Regé-Jean Page and Glen Powell Go West in Series Inspired by ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’
The Bridgerton and Top Gun: Maverick actors will star in the Amazon series executive produced by Joe and Anthony Russo’s AGBO
George Roy Hill’s 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is reportedly about to get a modern spin from the Russo brothers.
Regé-Jean Page and Glen Powell will be leading a reimagined version of the beloved Western, taking form this time as a series on Amazon.
News of the show was first shared by The Hollywood Reporter.
Titled Butch and Sundance, the drama will be written by Kaz and Ryan Firpo — known for recent work on Marvel’s Eternals — and see executive production from produced by AGBO, the company from Avengers: Endgame directors Joe and Anthony Russo.
Butch Cassidy — a role that once belonged to the iconic Paul Newman — will be taken by Page, whereas Powell will take on Robert Redford’s former character of the Sundance Kid. Both actors will serve as executive producers.
The show, according to the outlet, is being envisioned as the kickoff to a larger franchise with a variety of spinoffs. All will allegedly take place in in an alternate United States, similar to those Americas depicted on Amazon’s Man in the High Castle (or even Apple’s For All Mankind).
AGBO celebrated the news on Thursday, sharing on Twitter a photo of the Butch and Sundance team that included Page and Powell. “It’s just the beginning,” the Russo brothers later shared in their own tweet.
https://twitter.com/AGBOfilms/status/1570521023447175169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1570521023447175169%7Ctwgr%5E0035bd009d1fa27db97b95995b252b51ff592d41%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpeople.com%2Fembed%3Furl%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2Ftwitter2Fstatus2F1570521023447175169id%3Dmntl-sc-block_1-0-14-iframeoptions%3De303DdocId%3D6674569
Even with no director revealed yet and the project still in early stages, buzz around the project is high. The series sparked a bidding situation with streamers, Amazon beating out Disney+ and Peacock for rights, THR reported.
Last year, Page saw his breakout role in Netflix’s fan-beloved Bridgerton and most recently has been working on a Dungeons & Dragons film.
Powell has credits in films like The Dark Knight Rises, Hidden Figures and on TV in Scream Queens. He was one of the leads in the 2022 box office smash Top Gun: Maverick.
Back in August, Powell opened up to PEOPLE about the Top Gun sequel, which at that point had earned over $1.4 billion worldwide at the box office. As he explained, as a fan of the first film, he was “very grateful” to have to opportunity to go soaring. Because after all, he got to learn from some of the “greats,” like co-star Tom Cruise.
“I’ve just been grateful [for] how Tom has been so involved in my career and how he checks in to make sure the changing of my life is going well and to see what I’m working on next and if I need any help with it,” Powell said. “He’s just such a special friend. I’m just so grateful that he’s as cool, if not cooler, than you would hope he’d be.”
As for the chance of a third Top Gun movie hitting theaters, Powell explained that it’s not in his power to make it happen, but there’s a shot he’d give it a go again.
“There’s definitely been conversations [but] it’s above my pay grade,” Powell said. “It’s really up to Tom. It’s up to Jerry. It’s up to all the powers that be, but if they call me back to Miramar, I’ll be there.”
Regardless of what happens, Maverick appears to have lit a new passion for Powell: piloting airplanes.
“I flew a few days ago,” he told PEOPLE earlier this year. “I want to try to make it more of my daily routine. Being around pilots, you get addicted to the lifestyle. They can fly anywhere at any given time. It’s such a great way to live; I’m loving it. I’m trying to use that license to go to Palm Springs, Napa, Santa Barbara for lunch, just trying to have as much adventure in my life as possible. Tom gave me stunt-driving lessons after I got my pilot’s license — so maybe car racing is next.”
[via]