A Kidless sequel to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?

Four decades after their fateful shootout, BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID are returning. Well, that’s half right.

A new project called BLACKTHORN follows up the Oscar-winning Western, but leaves behind Robert Redford’s Sundance, and fills the boots of the late Paul Newman with another Old West regular, Sam Shepard.

According to The Independent: “This film has the Wild West outlaw somehow managing to survive the frenzied shootout at the end of BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, and now living incognito with a native Bolivian woman, breeding horses and hiding his real identity, for roughly 15 years. He’s persuaded to return to crime by a young engineer, played by the Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega (TRANSSIBERIAN), who has robbed a local mine and is also on the run from the forces of law and order.”

Filmmaker Mateo Gil, best known for writing THE SEA INSIDE and OPEN YOUR EYES (remade as VANILLA SKY), describes his vision for resurrecting the legend as “that tired and lonely old man who, for an instant, recovers all his energy and dreams due to someone who seems to reincarnate the past, his old friends and ideals.”

It’s not the first time the charming outlaws have come back to life — besides a lousy 2006 TV movie, they appeared in a prequel and were played by Tom Berenger and “The Greatest American Hero” star William Katt.