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COVER STORY Bonnie & Clyde: Still loving and shooting after all these years By Jacqueline Cutler © Zap2it Bonnie and Clyde captivated the public as they went on a bloody bank-robbing spree 80 years ago, and Lifetime, History and A&E Network hope the public's fascination continues as they premiere "Bonnie & Clyde" Sunday and Monday, Dec. 8 and 9. After History's surprise huge hit with the "Hatfields & McCoys" miniseries, broadcasters have been looking for another chapter of American history that resonates the same way: familiar but not too familiar. This four-hour miniseries, starring Emile Hirsch ("Into the Wild") and Holliday Grainger ("The Borgias"), was in the works before the History hit. It has a cinematic feel and takes a few risks, particularly with showing Clyde's sixth sense and Bonnie's hysteria and presenting the story in a leisurely fashion. "It is a morality story and has some parallels to our modern era," Hirsch says. "They were almost the original reality TV stars. They were playing out their lives in the media, and that is an interesting parallel. "I feel like something about the Bonnie and Clyde story will appeal to people for generations and generations," Hirsch continues. "It is a real love story that is flawed and tragic. As horrible as they were, the one thing that was always consistent, that never changed, was their love for each other." The film does a great job of capturing the period, the costumes, cars and feel of the Depression. People may think they know the story well, but the miniseries aims to reveal who they were beyond the bank robberies. Clyde is shown to have suffered a serious fever as child, and after that he was said to have a sixth sense. He had visions, including one of Bonnie, long before he met her. He first saw Bonnie at her wedding, and even the fact that she was married did not deter Clyde. Bonnie is given to weeping fits, and only her mom (Holly Hunter) can calm her. Until she began working on this, Grainger was among those who thought she knew the story well. "I was very aware of Bonnie and Clyde growing up, in the way you know about Romeo and Juliet and Thelma and Louise," Grainger says. "It wasn't until I started researching the part, and I realized how quite short their lives on the road were. It was only two years. It must have been a long two years, constantly moving." The miniseries reminds us how they held up small banks for tiny amounts. This being the Depression, people had no sympathy for the banks. But they developed a kinship with Bonnie and Clyde because of a newspaper reporter, P.J. Lane (Elizabeth Reaser, "The Twilight Saga"), who wrote sympathetic stories. Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger star in "Bonnie & Clyde," airing Sunday and Monday on Lifetime, History and A&E Network. 1 x 4" ad 2 – DECEMBER 8 - 14, 2013 – BRAINERD, MN/DISPATCH 2 x 4" ad

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