Butch and Sundance: The Early Days
7.8 /10 2 Votes
Director Richard Lester Initial DVD release February 22, 2005 Country United States | 5.6/10 IMDb Genre Comedy, Western Duration Language English | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Release date June 15, 1979 Writer William Goldman (characters), Allan Burns Film series Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Film Series Cast William Katt (The Sundance Kid), Tom Berenger (Butch Cassidy), Jeff Corey (Sheriff Ray Bledsoe), John Schuck (Kid Curry / Harvey Logan), Michael C. Gwynne (Mike Cassidy), Peter Weller (Joe Le Fors)Similar movies Mad Max: Fury Road , Star Trek , The Lone Ranger , Monsters University , Angels & Demons , Death Race 2 Tagline Before the fame when fun was the name of the game. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days is a 1979 Western film and prequel of sorts to the 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It stars Tom Berenger as Butch Cassidy and William Katt as the Sundance Kid.
Contents
It was directed by Richard Lester and written by Allan Burns. It generally received mixed reviews but was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
Plot
A young Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid are wannabe outlaws who find that breaking the law is not as easy as it seems.
Production
Allan Burns worked on the script with William Goldman, who was on board as executive producer; Goldman added some scenes and moments he wanted to introduce in the first movie but the bulk of the script was Burns'.
William Katt had recently made First Love and was being called "a young Robert Redford" so ended up being cast as Sundance. Tom Berenger was cast after the studio were impressed by his performance in Looking for Mr Goodbar.
Director Richard Lester stated he had never seen the first movie.
Release
The film reportedly lost $4 million.
A DVD of the film was released by Anchor Bay Entertainment in February 2005. However, Anchor Bay has since lost distribution rights to the film and the DVD was forced to go out of print.
Shout! Factory acquired the rights to the film and released it on DVD as a double billing with Death Hunt on February 1, 2011.
It is currently available on BLU-RAY through Timeless Media Group.
References
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days WikipediaButch and Sundance: The Early Days IMDb Butch and Sundance: The Early Days themoviedb.org