![]() ![]() “I just want people to know the film is out there,” he says. Besides being a fine human being, he’s one of the best actors there ever was, not because he can play God, but because he can play anything from the devil to God convincingly. ![]() “It’s really not about winning any awards for me, anyway, although I wouldn’t mind seeing Morgan get some more recognition. “I can’t do a thing about it, but I tell you it does not feel good,” says Redford. Instead, the Weinsteins have elected to put their legendary Oscar marketing muscle behind two other films starring actors they hope will be willing to make a lot more movies for their new Weinstein Company: “Proof,” with Gwyneth Paltrow, and “The Libertine,” with Johnny Depp. ![]() It is not a stretch to imagine Redford, Freeman – once again the voice of reason, but also hilarious – and Hallstrom getting Oscar nominations if a serious campaign is mounted. Which means he’s not that comfortable talking about the fate of “An Unfinished Life,” the sort of serious-minded but morally redemptive film that generally resounds with Oscar voters. I just like things more expressed than talked about.” “Mostly, we’re concerned about getting too sentimental,” Redford says. “Oh, Lasse and I did a little bit of work on the script,” he says of director Lasse Hallstrom, who specializes in novel-to-film adaptations like “The Cider House Rules” and “Chocolat.” Since it was not developed by Redford’s Wildwood production company, unlike most of his films of the past 25 years, he enjoyed the relative freedom of being an actor for hire. “An Unfinished Life” was adapted from a novel by Mark Spragg. Some go with the flow, some don’t, and this guy doesn’t.” Times have changed, and they don’t like it a bit. ![]() You live in the West long enough, you meet those guys everywhere. “Plus, I had never played that guy before, but I knew him intimately. I put on weight, didn’t have to shave or get groomed every morning, didn’t have to smile for the camera,” Redford says. “God, it was great to play a guy like him, gone to seed, surly. But seeing Lopez, whom he blames for the tragedy, opens old wounds. He had finally begun to live with his son’s death in a car accident 12 years before. He plays an embittered Wyoming rancher who spends his days cutting brush and looking after his former horse wrangler and best friend, played by Morgan Freeman, an invalid after being mauled by a bear.īut the rancher’s life changes dramatically with the arrival of his dead son’s former wife, played by Jennifer Lopez, and an 11-year-old granddaughter he never knew he had. “An Unfinished Life” is easily Redford’s best film since 1998’s “The Horse Whisperer” and the first to see him truly accepting, if not altogether embracing, his 68 years. “It could make me crazy if I let it,” he says. The Weinsteins were allowed to shepherd their remaining films to market, but as Redford observes, some are being shepherded with more guidance than others. To Redford’s “enormous frustration,” it has been on the shelf for more than two years amid a battle between Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the departing founders of film distributor Miramax, and its corporate parent, the Walt Disney Co. “Then comes the musical chairs, the constant changes in leadership, and it all happens again,” he says.Ĭorporate politics also have affected Redford’s new film, “An Unfinished Life,” which opens in theaters today. A change of leadership, Redford says, has made for a better atmosphere, but he wants to be free to be “more aggressive” – as in broadcasting last year’s “Vote for Change” concerts, an idea Viacom thought unwise. More and more of the movies that screen every January at the Park City, Utah, festival, which Redford took over more than 20 years ago, now find their way to TV screens.īut Sundance’s partnership with Viacom faltered in the last few years. The business concerned the Sundance Channel, the cable network that Redford said was designed to bring the festival to people who can’t go. “I had to do some business with corporate America,” he says. Robert Redford has had to postpone his morning interview, and when he does check in with apologies, he reports the reason with some wariness. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |