In 1871, the McCartys left New York hoping to find new work opportunities in the West of the country. But the violent and wild lands of New Mexico do not offer the hoped-for dream to this family of Irish immigrants: to survive, their young son Billy must learn to handle the colt, a gift which will make him famous a few years later under the name of Billy the Kid. Like Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill, the famous outlaw is one of those figures with an extraordinary destiny who have nourished many legends of the Wild West.
Coming soon to the poster of the new opus of The Hunger Gamesthe English actor Tom Blyth succeeds without flinching in the title role to none less than Paul Newman (The Lefty), Kris Kristofferson (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid) and Emilio Estevez (Young Guns). But the real star is to be found behind the scenes: behind this series which aims to be closer to historical adventure than to traditional western, it is not surprising to find Michael Hirst, already demystifying Scandinavian warriors with Vikings after having developed the story of Henry VIII in The Tudors.
Immigration, one of the main themes of this series
“When I was little, I loved Billy the Kid, explained the British screenwriter to us during the last edition of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival. So I wanted to tell his story to understand who he really was, and see if he really deserved my admiration. While he’s always been portrayed as a psychopathic killer, I discovered that he was actually totally different. » And the showrunner to present a young man whose Catholic mother served as a moral benchmark, and who will defend the Mexicans against the American colonist.
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Because one of the main themes of this series is indeed that of immigration: because his parents had also landed from a foreign country, Billy identified with those whom the Americans expelled from their lands. “Through my work, I always try to connect the past to the present, and when we see that Trump wanted to build a wall between Mexico and the United States, we understand that this subject still resonates today. »explains Michael Hirst.
In a country traumatized by the recent mass killings, Hirst nevertheless recognizes that it is difficult to stage such a character without falling into the fetishism of revolvers and Winchesters: “The United States is still a violent, gun-obsessed country today. It’s absolutely sickening that they haven’t learned anything in the past two hundred years! My hero doesn’t like killing people, he doesn’t want to be famous for it, that’s why I didn’t want to show gratuitous and exciting killings: there are enough westerns that already do that. »
Michael Hirst is currently working on a Beatles-centric miniseries
After having written alone the 38 episodes of The Tudors and the 89 episodes of Vikings, Michael Hirst is once again the only master on board Billy the Kid : “You have to be crazy to be a screenwriter, and I know I am! So if I had to lock myself in a room to work with other crazy people, I would become a psychiatrist! »
He nevertheless collaborates with a historical adviser and many academics to validate the plausibility of his work: “Historical veracity does not exist, so I seek authenticity,he indicates. I need to find a human connection with my characters, and that’s usually not difficult. I’ve always been amazed by the old BBC costume dramas that played when I was a kid: the heroes looked contrived, they were dressed oddly and they talked about uninteresting things. Yet these were men and women who had feelings and fell in love. That’s what I’m trying to do! »
If he left behind the adventures of the Scandinavian warriors and is not involved in the spin-off series Vikings – Valhalla (Netflix), the English author continues to be interested in History: he is currently working on a miniseries centered about the Beatles, and finally agreed to collaborate with a co-writer, in this case his own son, for a story that will take place in… the future! “It will connect the future to the present and the past, he insists. I am incapable of writing pure fiction, let alone science fiction! »
Billy the Kid**. By Michael Hirst, with Tom Blyth, Daniel Webber, Eileen O’Higgins. 8 episodes of 50 minutes. Available on PARAMOUNT+.