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Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still<\/p>\n
Sat 17 October 2026 17:45, UK <\/p>\n
If anyone could get a film made, it was Robert Redford.<\/a> Becoming a Hollywood star of the 1960s and beyond, he\u2019d soon add another title to his repertoire \u2013 the ultimate champion of independent filmmaking.\u00a0<\/p>\n Redford would establish the Sundance Film Festival a few years after launching the Sundance Institute in 1981, which would help to nurture low-budget and indie filmmaking by giving directors access to mentoring, funding, and resources. The festival would soon become one of the most important institutions in Hollywood, allowing movies like Sex, Lies and Videotape <\/a>\u2013 which kickstarted the \u2018Indiewood\u2019 boom of the \u201890s \u2013 to make a major splash.<\/p>\n The actor was a massive player in helping indie filmmaking to prosper in the face of intense studio-bound domination in Hollywood during the \u201880s. Following the success of Star Wars in the late \u201870s \u2013 as well as the failure of the ambitious Heaven\u2019s Gate in 1980<\/a> \u2013 the industry was heading back to the days of tight studio control, and Redford ensured that interesting filmmakers were still able to have their voices heard. <\/p>\n His determination to get movies made was surely influenced by his struggle to bring the movie Jeremiah Johnson to life, which faced setbacks from producers who weren\u2019t sure that the film would be a success. Redford wasn\u2019t going to give up that easily, though, and against all odds, he starred in the film, which was directed by Sydney Pollack. <\/p>\n \u201cFor Jeremiah Johnson, nobody wanted to make that film. I went to Sydney Pollack<\/a>, and I said, \u2018Sydney, I live in the mountains, and I would like to make a film about a person that had to exist in the mountains and survive in the mountains,\u2019\u201d Redford told Vanity Fair.\u00a0<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t easy, but Redford knew that he could get the movie made on a small budget \u2013 that\u2019s what he\u2019d come to be so good at the following decade, anyway \u2013 so he persevered and proved the studio wrong. <\/p>\n \u201cWe made the film. Very proud of it. We made it for $3 million. The studio said, \u2018We don\u2019t think we can make it for under five.\u2019 We said, \u2018We think we can.\u2019 They didn\u2019t want to do it,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/p>\n The issue was that the studio was worried that the movie just wouldn\u2019t sell, even with Redford in the lead as the iconic mountain man (inspired by the fact that the actor was actually living in the mountains at the time). \u201cThey said, \u2018We don\u2019t think we can sell it with you in the beard and the traps and all, we don\u2019t think we can sell that,\u2019\u201d Redford revealed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was over there, the studio came and said, \u2018Hey, we really like this film. It\u2019s different.\u2019 We were thinking, \u2018Well, great.\u2019 And they said, \u2018Well, that\u2019s our problem.\u2019 We said, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019 They said, \u2018We don\u2019t know how to sell it. We don\u2019t know how to market it.\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, can\u2019t you market it as something different?\u2019 \u2018No, you don\u2019t understand the business.\u2019 Three and a half years it sat on the shelf without being released.\u201d <\/p>\n How ironic that Redford would be told that he didn\u2019t understand \u201cthe business.\u201d A decade later, the actor was one of the leading figures in the world of independent filmmaking and distribution, changing Hollywood forever with Sundance.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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