{"id":171441,"date":"2025-09-30T22:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T22:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/171441\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T22:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T22:56:08","slug":"the-ill-conceived-movie-that-haunted-robert-redford-for-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/171441\/","title":{"rendered":"The “ill-conceived” movie that haunted Robert Redford for decades"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Fox Searchlight Pictures )<\/p>\n

Tue 30 September 2025 19:45, UK <\/p>\n

Every actor, filmmaker, and actor-turned-filmmaker has at least one passion project they spend years trying to get made, and Robert Redford<\/a> was no different. However, the difference was that he\u2019d already brought it to the screen twice before the third time finally marked the charm.<\/p>\n

It was inevitable that the \u2018New Hollywood\u2019 icon would move behind the camera eventually, and when he did, his debut feature, Ordinary People, won him the Academy Award for \u2018Best Director\u2019<\/a>. A year later, in 1981, he founded the Sundance Institute, so it\u2019s an understatement to call it a career-defining period.<\/p>\n

By the end of the decade, Redford had helmed his second feature and added producing to his ever-expanding list of duties, and in 1986, he purchased the rights to author Tony Hillerman\u2019s series of mystery novels following Navajo Nation Police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, with the hope of making them the centrepiece of a film series. Unfortunately, it didn\u2019t quite work out that way.<\/p>\n

Five years later, the erstwhile Sundance Kid executive produced The Dark Wind, but things didn\u2019t go as planned. Starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Fred Ward as Leaphorn and Chee, it failed to secure theatrical distribution in the United States and was sent straight to video, with Redford\u2019s disagreements with director Errol Morris throughout production leaving him frustrated with the results.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a false start,\u201d he told the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. \u201cIt was miscast. It was ill-conceived, and I didn\u2019t think it was the right beginning for the series.\u201d Initially, he\u2019d planned that \u201cevery 18 months, this little movie would come out\u201d based on Hillerman\u2019s books, but in addition to the adaptations being \u201cso complexly difficult to mount,\u201d Redford found \u201cno support\u201d for his vision.<\/p>\n

Fast forward another five years, and he tried again, executive producing 2002\u2019s made-for-television film Skinwalkers, which featured Wes Studi and Adam Beach as Leaphorn and Chee, with his son, James, writing the script. It did at least give rise to two sequels, A Thief of Time and Coyote Waits, but Redford still wasn\u2019t satisfied.<\/p>\n

At long last, his decision to persevere with adapting Hillerman\u2019s novels until he felt he\u2019d gotten it right paid off when the TV series Dark Winds premiered in June 2022. The third season concluded in April 2025, and it\u2019s already been renewed for a fourth run. Not only that, but it even became a full circle moment when a surprise cameo appearance marked Redford\u2019s last-ever onscreen credit.<\/p>\n

After a six-year absence from being in front of the cameras following Marvel\u2019s Avengers: Endgame, Redford made an unannounced return to acting<\/a> in the third season\u2019s premiere, which aired in March 2025. A full 39 years after he\u2019d acquired the rights to Hillerman\u2019s work, he played a role in the different version he\u2019d executive-produced, and the one that\u2019s won the most acclaim.<\/p>\n

When Redford passed, his fellow executive producers released a shared statement celebrating how his \u201ccreative inspiration is woven into the fabric of Dark Winds, and we\u2019re eternally grateful for his stewardship,\u201d a far cry from the early 90s when the legendary actor had rued how his first attempt had gone awry.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Fox Searchlight Pictures ) Tue 30 September 2025 19:45, UK Every actor, filmmaker, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,30411,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-171441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-robert-redford","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}