Two of the hottest young actors working today, Game of Thrones‘s Emilia Clarke and X-Men star Nicholas Hoult, have just boarded Go Down Together, Michael Sucsy’s take on iconic American bank robbing couple, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
The project has a script by Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air) and David Auburn (Proof), who adapted the film from Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde, a non-fiction book by Jeff Guinn. Described as a “revisionist take” on the two young lovers who robbed banks across the Depression-era South in the 1930s, killing at least seven people along the way, Go Down Together has been in the works for several years, but now that two stars are attached, it looks primed to move forward quickly.
Bonnie and Clyde have been largely romanticized in popular culture, most prominently in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, featuring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, and in the 2013 miniseries Bonnie & Clyde, which was simultaneously broadcast across A&E, Lifetime and History Channel. However, if it adheres to the spirit of Guinn’s book, Go Down Together sounds like it will look past the legend to focus on telling a realistic yet action-packed story about the pair.
The Amazon synopsis for Guinn’s book offers a few more clues about the tone of Go Down Together:
Bestselling author Jeff Guinn combines exhaustive research with surprising, newly discovered material to tell the real tale of two kids from a filthy Dallas slum who fell in love and then willingly traded their lives for a brief interlude of excitement and, more important, fame. Go Down Together has it all—true romance, rebellion against authority, bullets flying, cars crashing, and, in the end, a dramatic death at the hands of a celebrity lawman.
This is the real story of Bonnie and Clyde and their troubled times, delivered with cinematic sweep by a masterful storyteller.
Sucsy seems like the right choice to bring a human touch back into the near-mythical story of Bonnie and Clyde. He previously directed two highly emotional, character-driven films, The Vow and Grey Gardens, and the title Go Down Together suggests that he’ll similarly be focusing on the complex romance between the pair. The director will be assisted by having two strong performers in the lead roles, as well.
Both Clarke and Hoult are fine actors who have seen their stars soar in the past few years. In addition to starring as Dany, the Mother of Dragons, on Game of Thrones, Clarke has booked the lead role in Terminator: Genesis and recently played a major supporting role in the acclaimed crime comedy, Dom Hemingway.
For his part, Hoult will star in this summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past and has a huge amount of projects in the works. He’ll play roles in Gillian Flynn adaptation Dark Places, dystopian thriller Mad Max: Fury Road, drug smuggling thriller Autobahn, crime comedy Kill Your Friends and Drake Doremus-helmed romance Equals. He is also set to voice the lead character in animated family film Once Upon a Time in the Kitchen.
By the time Go Down Together rolls around, both actors may have solidified their positions atop the New Hollywood A-List.
