“The outlaws made headlines. The lawmen made history,” is the tagline for Director John Lee Hancock’s true-life crime drama, The Highwaymen.
From April 19, 1932 until May 23, 1934, Bonnie Elizabeth Parker, Clyde Chestnut Barrow and their gang engaged in a string of deadly robberies across the Central United States during the Great Depression. Their brazen activities cemented them in pop culture but also resulted in the deaths of at least nine police officers and several civilians. The story of Bonnie & Clyde is well known, but Hancock’s film concentrates on the other side of the equation and reveals the untold true story of former Texas Rangers Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner) and Maney Gault (Woody Harrelson). After being coaxed out of retirement by the Texas Department of Corrections and Ma Ferguson, the first woman governor of Texas, Hamer and Gault used their gut instincts and old school skills to end the murderous run of the Barrow Gang when the full force of the FBI and the latest forensic technology weren’t enough to capture the nation's most notorious criminals.
Following the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles on April 7, Hancock sat down with Director Lawrence Kasdan (Darling Companion) to discuss the making of The Highwaymen.
In addition to The Highwaymen, Hancock’s credits include the feature films The Founder, Saving Mr. Banks, The Rookie, The Alamo and The Blind Side and episodes of the television series L.A. Doctors and Falcone. He has been a member of the DGA since 1999.
You can listen to Hancock's Q&A by clicking the podcast episode embedded below. You can find more DGA podcast episodes here.