Blackthorn is a 2011 Western film directed by Mateo Gil and starring Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, and Stephen Rea. Written by Miguel Barros, the film is a fictional account of an aged Butch Cassidy living under the assumed name James Blackthorn in a secluded village in Bolivia 20 years after his disappearance in 1908. Blackthorn was filmed on location in La Paz, Potosí, and Uyuni in Bolivia. Initially released in Spain on 1 July 2011, the film was released theatrically in the United States on 7 October 2011.

Samuel Shepard Rogers III was an American actor, playwright, author, director and screenwriter whose career spanned half a century. He won 10 Obie Awards for writing and directing, the most by any writer or director. He wrote 58 plays as well as several books of short stories, essays, and memoirs. Shepard received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979 for his play Buried Child and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. He received the PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award as a master American dramatist in 2009. New York magazine described Shepard as "the greatest American playwright of his generation."