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Hot off his Oscar nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin, Barry Keoghan has lined up a high-profile movie role in a biopic of Billy the Kid.

Deadline reports that Bart Layton, who previously directed Keoghan in the 2018 heist movie American Animals, will direct the movie about the notorious 19th century outlaw.

“We’ve seen many versions of Billy the Kid on screen before,” Keoghan told the publication. “My interest was in trying to tell a version that breaks from the facade of that cool, calm, and collected gunslinger Billy the Kid that we’re all used to seeing. I wanted to humanize him in a way.”

Billy the Kid, whose real name was Henry McCarty, is alleged to have killed 21 men in the American West before being shot dead in Fort Sumner, New Mexico at the age of 21. Because of the volume of crimes he is believed to have committed – and at such a young age – he has long fascinated storytellers.

Like Billy the Kid, Keoghan lost his mother at a young age. The Irish actor, 30, subsequently spent seven years being raised in the foster care system before launching an acting career that really took off with roles in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, Marvel's Eternals, and The Batman. This year, he has picked up Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA nominations for his role in Martin McDonagh's black comedy movie The Banshees of Inisherin. 

“I wanted to step outside of the legend that was built up by the papers and tackle the pressure [Billy the Kid] must have felt from those early days. He was running his whole life," Keoghan added. "I felt related to Billy in the sense of him being a mummy’s boy, but obviously, I took a different path, turning my circumstances into something positive rather than rebelling against them."

Can you picture Barry Keoghan as Billy the Kid?