Barry Keoghanwho plays Joker in The Batman, the latest film by Matt Reeves, is ready to star in the project of his dreams.
According to Deadline, Keoghan will star in a new movie that takes up the story of Billy the Kid. The direction will be carried out by Bart Layton, with whom Keoghan already worked in 2018 on American Animals. The film will be produced by Element Pictures and Film4.
Keoghan spoke to Deadline about the project, saying: “We’ve seen a lot of versions of Billy the Kid on screen before… My interest was trying to tell a version that would break with the facade of that cold, calm and serene gunman which is Billy and which we are all used to seeing. He wanted to humanize it in a way.”
The film will focus on the Irish ancestry and the complicated childhood of Billy the Kid. Originally known as Henry McCarty, he was born in New York in 1859. He was orphaned at age 15 after the death of his mother, and was first arrested for robbery a year later. At 18 he was already wanted for murder, and at 21 he was shot to death.
Barry Keoghan grew up in foster care after his mother died when he was 12, and the actor told Deadline that understands the pressures that pushed McCarty toward crime.
“I wanted to get out of the legend that the newspapers built and address the pressure he must have felt from those early days. He had been on the run his whole life. I felt related to Billy, but obviously I took a different path, turning my circumstances into something positive in instead of rebelling against them. there is a soul and a vulnerability in Billy that I think is important to bring toto understand him as a real person and not as the myth that he has become”.
Barry Keoghan first attempted to pitch the project in 2020, before the pandemic halted its progress. Now, Layton expects to start production in the first half of next year. Keoghan built this project from scratch, telling Deadline that this is the role he hopes to be remembered for.
Barry Keoghan he appeared briefly in last year’s movie The Batman as Joker, and said that he would not pass up the opportunity to reprise the iconic villain. The actor is currently nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Banshee of Inisherin.
Original story from Logan Plant on IGN.
