Barry Keoghan is set to play Billy the Kid in a new feature re-telling of the life of the classic Old West gunslinger at Element Pictures, RAW and Film4.

The film, which will reunite Keoghan with his American Animals director Bart Layton, aims to lean into the Kid’s Irish ancestry and complicated childhood. Born in New York as Henry McCarty, he was orphaned at the age of 15 when his mother died and his stepfather abandoned him. His first arrest for robbery came a year later, and by the time he was 18, he was wanted for murder after an altercation in Arizona. His notoriety escalated from there, and he was 21 when Sheriff Pat Garrett shot him to death.

Keoghan, who grew up within the foster system, sees a kindred spirit in Billy. "I remember reading about him as a kid, but as we were digging into the project, there were so many things we discovered about his life," he says. "There are so many eyewitness accounts, and lots of different versions of his story that didn’t add up but that contributed to the legend."

Hunter Andrews penned the script and filming aims to begin in the early part of 2024.

Source: Press Release