As Vincent D'Onofrio finishes up work on Antoine Fuqua's remake of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, Deadline reports that he'll soon return to the western genre, only this time, he'll be behind the camera as well as in front of it. Vincent D'Onofrio will direct and star in THE KID, which will tell the story of infamous gunfighter Billy the Kid leading up to his killing by Sheriff Pat Garrett. James Franco and Ethan Hawke (who also appears in Fuqua's MAGNIFICENT SEVEN remake) are also attached to star in the film which has been scripted by Andrew Lanham.
Lets see what it's all about:
[THE KID] is told through the eyes of a young boy who is torn between his admiration of the gunfighter legend and his need to save his family. The boy’s uncle has murdered his father and when he catches up to the boy and his sister, the uncle turns her out as a prostitute. The enraged boy tracks down Billy the Kid, hoping his hero will get his sister back. The boy finds his romantic notion of the gunfighter is false and that Billy is an uncaring and selfish adolescent. And then the youth discovers true heroism in Sheriff Pat, who, after gunning down the outlaw, takes on the challenge of reuniting the boy with his sister
There aren't enough westerns nowadays for my tastes and the story of Billy the Kid is a fascinating one, so D'Onofrio can surely count on my butt in the seat upon release. Deadline calls THE KID Vincent D'Onofrio's directorial debut, but a quick glance at his IMDB shows that he wrote and directed DON'T GO INTO THE WOODS, a 2010 horror musical which I've neither seen nor heard of before now. We'll be able to witness Vincent D'Onofrio in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN on September 23, 2016.