By Ryan Pearson, Entertainment Writer
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) --Robert Redford took "A Walk in the Woods" to his own Sundance Film Festival.
The 78-year-old actor, director and producer had long hoped to adapt Bill Bryson's 1998 travel book about two friends hiking the Appalachian Trail. It finally came together last year, and director Ken Kwapis submitted it to the festival director without Redford's knowledge.
And that's how Redford ended up making the rounds to media outlets at the festival that he helped launch more than 30 years ago.
"The circumstances, maybe you can call them weird, but I just call them serendipitous. It's just one of those things that came together. It does feel strange with Bill Bryson sitting next to me. That's a little strange. We were sitting in the screening last night. I found myself nervous that he was sitting next to me and I was playing him," Redford said.
Redford said he'd originally hoped to re-team with Paul Newman to make "A Walk in the Woods." But after Newman died in 2008, the project floundered.
"I read the book many, many years ago and I found myself laughing out loud and I don't do that. And that made me pay attention to the book on the whole and I thought this is a project I think I can be in as an actor, as a character. And initially I thought of Paul Newman because that was way back. I thought that it would be a wonderful third part for Paul and I to do, because it had similar personalities the other two had," Redford said.
"Then it became a matter of perseverance, passion and obstinacy. I wasn't going to give it up because it was not coming together the way I had hoped. And then finally it has come together and here we are."
Nick Nolte eventually was cast to fill the part of Katz, the friend that accompanies Bryson on his walk. The two actors shifted the focus of the film from rediscovering America to also pondering their own mortality.
"I was thinking about a journey that was being taken by two people who were once friends who fell out and were going to come back together again through some kind of desperation. Last chance cafe or last chance before it's too late or before you're going to die — all that I thought was pretty powerful emotional stuff as a motive," Redford said.
The 73-year-old Nolte said the two take slightly different approaches personally to aging — but he was glad to make a friend through the film.
"This I like because I've only got death left, you know. And that's all Bob has. Of course, he denies that but you know — that's the big event. I do have a 7-year-old daughter so that's been a blessing. It sparks you alive, it really does," Nolte said. "Bob has been a good addition as far as friends in my life. Not only as an actor but as a friend."
"A Walk in the Woods" does not yet have a US distributor. The Sundance Film Festival continues through next weekend.
“Heretic” and “Maria” Set As Red Carpet Premieres At AFI Fest
The American Film Institute (AFI) has announced that Heretic, the psychological thriller starring Hugh Grant, and Maria, based on the life of opera singer Maria Callas starring Angelina Jolie, will round out the Red Carpet Premieres section at this year’s AFI Fest. The Heretic Gala Screening will take place on Thursday, October 24, and the Maria Gala Screening will be held on Saturday, October 26. The complete Red Carpet Premieres section includes the world premieres of Music By John Williams, Robert Zemeckis’ Here, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2. All Red Carpet Premieres will take place at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre. The full lineup for AFI Fest 2024 will be unveiled on October 1.
“At the heart of AFI Fest is an unwavering dedication to celebrating the best in global cinema--together,” said Bob Gazzale, AFI president and CEO. “We look forward to uniting artists and audiences once again to be inspired by the art form in a powerful sense of community.”
Heretic follows two young missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) who are forced to prove their faith when they knock on the wrong door and are greeted by a diabolical Mr. Reed (portrayed by Grant), becoming ensnared in his deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The film is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and produced by Stacey Sher, Beck, Woods, Julia Glausi and Jeanette Volturno. The film will be released nationwide by A24 on November 8.
Directed by Pablo Larraín, Maria presents a tumultuous and beautiful depiction of one of the world’s most renowned artists and reimagines the legendary soprano in her final days in Paris, as Callas (Jolie)... Read More