THE HIGHWAYMEN Trailer: Woody & Kevin Hunt Bonnie & Clyde

Everybody knows about Bonnie & Clyde. If they haven't seen Bonnie & Clyde, they know about Bonnie & Clyde, or at least have some idea of the phrase "Bonnie & Clyde." But few people know about the authorities who took them on. That's what Netflix is banking on, anyway.

Directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and starring Kevin Costner (The Untouchables) and Woody Harrelson (Venom), The Highwaymen is set to tell exactly that story. Costner and Harrelson play the two old-school former Texas Rangers tasked with stepping in when the FBI, with all its newfangled technology and fancy city-folk words, proves ineffective. Here's a trailer:

I'll be honest: irrespective of the pair's crimes, given the 1967 Bonnie & Clyde's status as one of the first New Hollywood films and a critical part of the counterculture, cinematically speaking this feels like a big ol' sloppy kiss on the Man's backside. The movie itself looks fine, but it also feels like the kind of movie that would be made in the Reagan era specifically as a rebuttal to that hit film. Then again, maybe the film subverts its own off-brand True Detective pairing somehow. We'll see. Plus, Kathy Bates and John Carroll Lynch are also in this movie, which is definitely a selling point for this guy.

The Highwaymen launches on Netflix alarmingly soon, on March 29, after premiering at SXSW a couple weeks earlier.