An Interview with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

You may remember back in February when I interviewed screenwriter Kris Simonian about the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid TV pilot he’s developing called Hole in the Wall. A lot has happened since then, including casting. So today, on the last day of the show’s crowdfunding efforts on Mobcaster, I give you an interview with Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid themselves, Mark Gantt and Thatcher Robinson! From here on out, I refer to them with their character’s names. So without further delay, I give you an interview with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!

Before I start though – please take some time to visit the Hole in the Wall Mobcaster page and consider donating to the show. It’s a great premise and a series I would love to see get picked up.

1) What is it about Kris and Ben’s vision of Butch & Sundance that intrigued you to pursue this show?

Butch:  First word that comes to mind is PASSION, second word PASSION. Ben and Kris are two guys that are so enthusiastic and knowledgeable about this subject, the time period and the history. When I read the pilot and series bible I was so impressed with the thoroughness and attention to detail. I feel like I’m in safe hands with them.

Sundance: I think the initial appeal, for me at least, was almost entirely about playing an outlaw. There’s a yearning in the back of my mind, and I think most people’s, to just throw all societal attachments to the wind and travel from town to town, living by your bootstraps. I think it’s primal, it’s just not usually acted upon. Sundance is a guy who acted upon it, and this was my best chance to get as close to that adventure as I could.

Beyond that initial appeal, though, Kris and Ben’s take on the legend of Butch and Sundance is about demystifying the pair and depicting the human beings that became the legendary figures we still know more than a century later. There’s really not an extensive canon on Butch and Sundance and this project is going back to their origins, to show how the relationship began and how the two grew over time. That’s extremely exciting for me, because not only do we get a chance to plant our flag in mostly unexplored territory but also because I’ll get to discover Sundance and the person he was for a long time to come. Yes, the dialogue is fast and witty and ridiculously fun to say, but these are real people who bleed and exploring people who bleed is why I act in the first place.

Mark Gantt as Butch Cassidy

2) While preparing for the role, are you purposely staying away from Paul Newman and Robert Redford’s interpretation of the characters?

Butch:  God yes! There was of course some hesitation to playing the role of Butch Cassidy. I remember the Beringer film and I just felt that they were trying hard to cast him to look like Newman. At the end of the day, I have to create my own Cassidy. And be prepared for the ‘haters’!

Sundance:  I know I am. I saw the movie a few years ago and obviously those two are fantastic. They were in their prime, and I would be doomed if I tried to imitate what they did. Beyond that, we’re looking at a completely different time in Butch and Sundance’s lives. In the movie they’re nearing the end of their time together and our show is looking at the beginning of their relationship, many years previous. If you put Newman and Redford’s performances in our show they would be fun and charismatic, no doubt, but it would be inaccurate because these guys were not the same people at the beginning as they were at the end.

3) Is there a certain level of excitement and pride working on not only a pilot, but an independent project that has a more grassroots vibe?

Butch:  Absolutely. This is such an exciting time for filmmakers right now. We’ve got an opportunity to create something really awesome for a fraction of the budget you’d need just ten years ago. As I mentioned before, passion goes a long way in this town. I think we’ve all got enough to carry this to the finish line.

Sundance: Oh absolutely. We have that “nobody believes in us” underdog mentality right now, and I know that I’m eager to prove wrong everybody who doubts this project or passes on it. And when we succeed we will know how hard-earned it all was. Nothing was given to Kris and Ben and they worked their butts off to make their dream come true. I only hope I can do everything I can to contribute to that dream.

Thatcher Robinson as The Sundance Kid

4) Switching subjects completely, what’s your go – to book recommendation? Why?

Butch:  When people are traveling I always suggest a Graham Greene short story collection. You can’t go wrong.

Sundance: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon. I read it a few years ago and no book has lingered on my mind as much since. The story is equal parts exhilarating and tragic, Kavalier and Clay are a duo on par with Butch and Sundance, and Chabon sets it all in a 1940s New York that he paints with exquisite and aching detail. I highly, highly recommend it.

5) Any Last Words?

Sundance: I primarily want to thank Kris and Ben for taking a leap of faith and trusting me with the part of Sundance. Also, to anybody reading this, I hope you’ll consider investing in the project. It’s a fun, rollicking script put together by an amazingly dedicated team, and I truly believe in its quality. You could be a part of something special from the ground floor up.

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks: 5 Questions with debut author Alma Katsu

Day Twenty Three: 5 Questions with debut author Alma Katsu

Click the image to go to Alma’s website

One of the books I was really excited about this fall when I still worked for Borders was Alma Katsu’s The Taker.  When a sales rep brought me a debut they were excited about, it was very important for me to read it.  So, when The Taker was sold in, I took it home that night and immediately dug right in.  I then found reasons to keep reading.  I think I took about a two hour bath that night.  A day later, I was done with The Taker and craving more.  I then gave my copy to my wife to read, and as expected, the same thing happened.  I’m not sure where my copy is any longer, because I know it’s been passed on again.  With how much I loved the book, I just had to share it with the world.  The rep sent me more copies and I passed them out to everyone I could.  I even did some giveaways on the old Borders Sci-Fi blog, Babel Clash.  So, it’s safe to say that I’m a huge advocate for this book.  It looks like I was right too because Booklist has named The Taker as one of the best debuts of the year.  That’s why I’m so excited Alma has agreed to spend some time on my blog during my 31 Days of Halloween Hijinks.

The Taker

The Taker is equal parts tragic love story, epic historical fiction, and supernatural horror.  Katsu has blended all of these elements together to form one of the best debuts I’ve ever read.  The novel starts off during the night shift in a small Maine hospital.  Luke Findley was prepping for another boring night in the ER, but this all changes as Lanny, a murder suspect who is being escorted by the local police, enters the hospital for medical care.  She asks Luke to help her escape, and the decision he makes will change his life forever because Lanny is not quite what he expected.

Below, find Alma’s answers to my five questions!

1)  Your debut novel is such a wonderful blend of historical fiction, tragic love story, and horror.  What inspired you to take on such a layered project?

Looking back, The Taker seems to be the sum of my subconscious projected through a variety of stories, writers, and some films, that made an impression on me as I was growing up. I didn’t know it while I was writing it, though. I was most conscious of the influence of Interview With The Vampire because I used a similar present-day frame: in The Taker, Lanny, the protagonist, tells her story to a doctor, just as Interview starts with Louis telling his story to a reporter, but in both cases the majority of the book is set in the past.

The Taker is the story of a young woman—a girl at the beginning of the book—who is in a rush to grow up and become a woman, and mostly to be in an adult love relationship, before she really knows what that means. For most of us, the transition from child to adult was sort of mysterious, and very personal. Lanny tries to find the answers but being an independent sort, charges ahead and ends up making some mistakes, which have dire consequences. To some extent, I was influenced by books such as Moll Flanders and Fanny Hill, or modern counterparts Slammerkin by Emma Donahue or Fanny by Erica Jong, which are all historical novels, stories of women who are forced into prostitution or compromising situations in order to survive (or in the case of Slammerkin, leads to the heroine’s ultimate downfall.)

Lastly, a friend swears that she sees a heavy Dark Shadows influence (I should point out that there are no vampires in The Taker, despite the comparisons to vampire stories.) I watched Dark Shadows as a kid but have no memory of any of the plot lines, so if there is a similarity, I’m pleading amnesia.

2)  Describe the feeling you had as a debut author when you finally saw your work in print and read all the wonderful reviews coming in. 

I’ve been very lucky, from getting a wonderful agent, to selling at auction, the overseas sales and yes, some really nice reviews. Especially after working on The Taker for ten years, after all those times you think it’s never going to go anywhere. But like every author, I’ve gotten my share of bad reviews, too, and just as everyone says, those are the ones you remember.

The book came out in the UK first, in the spring, and so it was a bit surreal at first, with everything happening thousands of miles away. I remember when the UK proofs first arrived; I wanted to show it to everyone I met! Now there are boxes of the different editions all over the house, the Spanish, Polish, US hardcover, audiobook—the UK paperback edition just arrived today! And we’re starting to put together the second book, The Reckoning. It’s hard to believe so much has happened in less than a year.

3)  While reading the book, I became pretty invested in the relationship between Luke and Lanny.  Can you give us a preview of what’s next for them?

The Reckoning picks up where The Taker left off, so if you’ve read the first book you probably have a good idea what this means. Lanny will soon be in a situation that puts her relationship with Luke under quite a bit of stress and will force her to confront her motives for enticing Luke to run away with her. Luke will have to ask himself how far he’s willing to go to be with her.

4)  Since this is appearing in my “31 Days of Halloween Hijinks” blog series, I have to ask one Halloween-themed question – what was your favorite costume as a kid?

Halloween was a makeshift holiday when I was a kid. When you were really little, your parents would get you these cheap costumes from Woolworth’s with the masks you couldn’t see out of. Once you graduated from these, costumes tended to be improvised, usually on Halloween day. Consequently, I don’t remember dressing up except as a witch one year.

What I do remember is the candy! This was before candy manufacturers came up with these “fun size” portions. Also, I grew up in a small but dense town, where everyone knew everyone else, and so parents felt safe letting their children roam all night, unescorted. We’d come home with a pillowcase filled—and I mean filled—with candy. It was like we’d robbed a candy store.

5)  What’s next for you?

I’m working with my editor to put the finishing touches on The Reckoning, the second book in the Taker trilogy. The third book, The Descent, has been started and I’m looking forward to getting back to it. Meanwhile, I’ve got a few short stories coming out that are sort-of outtakes from a previous version of The Taker that was written in multiple POVs. The Wedding Party, which is in the November edition of Portland magazine, is from Jonathan’s POV, and I hope to have a Kindle Single out soon which has Lanny crossing paths with Edgar Allan Poe. There are some projects on the horizon that are not related to The Taker, too, but the way things are going it will be a few years before I can get to them.

31 Days of Halloween Hijinks: Five scary reads to get you in the spirit

Day Seven:  Five scary reads to get you in the spirit

When it comes to October and the Halloween season, I go out of my way to scare myself.  It’s all part of the fun, right?  The one thing I won’t do though is Haunted Houses (more on that in a future post – nice tease, right?).  I get most of my scares through movies or reading, which coincidentally are my two biggest passions in life (minus family of course).

This Halloween season, I’m reading David Moody’s Autumn series to get my horror fix.  I’m on a zombie kick lately, and his books are excellent.  Aside from everything he’s ever written, I offer up these five choice horror selections for you to enjoy this season.

As a note, I did decide to only include books that were available as of today in my list.  There’s some absolutely amazing horror novels coming up towards the end of the month that I would also recommend, but I didn’t want you to get pissed that the books I recommended weren’t available.

In case you’re curious, the books that I recommend, but aren’t out yet are:

Zone One

The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor

Dead of Night

Double Dead

Click Read More to see my picks for this season!

31 Day Blog Challenge Profile: Quirky Bookworm

As you all may have noticed, I just started a 31 Day Blog Challenge. This is my first time doing one of these linky party things. In fact, I was just planning on blogging for 31 days by myself, but my lovely wife let me know about this huge linky party being hosted by a few of the blogs she reads regularly. I really didn’t know what to expect, but as of this evening, it looks like there’s over 650 people participating in this challenge. That being said, there’s a lot of great blogs participating. While I know it’ll probably be hard for me to check out every single blog, I wanted to make sure to call out some that really catch my eye. If you want to check out all 650ish blogs (which I recommend because my guess is we don’t all have the same tastes, right?), here’s a direct link to get you there… Complete List of the 31 Dayers

While you’re here, I also wanted to call out the first blog that really caught my eye. As a huge fan of books and the printed word, I’m always looking for new places to get recommendations. The name of this blog (Quirky Bookworm) immediately caught my eye because my reading tastes aren’t necessarily main stream.

After checking out the Quirky Bookworm blog, I also found out the person hosting this blog also reviews for Shelf Awareness – an industry rag I tend to respect (they seemed to be the most respectful of Borders through the whole liquidation ordeal. I immediately was intrigued to read further.

For the month of October, Jessica (the person behind Quirky Bookworm) will be recommending 31 books to us. I don’t know about you, but I think this is an amazing idea and can’t wait to she what she has to recommend. Please feel free to check out her blog and tell her Dane sent you.  Also, check back here periodically to see what other blogs I want to profile.

Here’s a direct link to the start of her 31 Day Blogs: