“A kind of wild dirt magazine sort of version of ‘Born to Run’ that honors the true free spirit of what a lot of these people are like.”

Peter Sarsgaard, who was a creative writing student under the great Stanley Elkin at Washington University before becoming an actor, talks about his vision for the Born to Run movie and about adding his own screenwriting touch to the script. He’s certainly done his homework, including: interviewing Barefoot Ted at the Leadville Trail 100; getting up at 3am to watch the start of the race; running roundtrip to the top of 12,500-foot Hope Pass; debriefing Prof. Lieberman on evolutionary biology; and chasing down Caballo Blanco for a sit-down.

In the Court of The Barefoot King