- Robert Redford, A River Runs Through It, 1991. Director Robert Redford loved Norman Maclean’s book about growing up with his younger brother, learning the parallels of life and fly-fishing. “I was going to do it one way or the other. Even… from my own pocket.” He didn’t want stars but great intelligence and sensitivity. “I came close with Wally but he read flat,” he said about the narration by the Pulitzer Prize- winning author. Redford then tried it, himself,. “It felt comfortable… like we were pleasing the old ghost. I knew how Norman sounded, I knew his way, I became Norman.” His All The President’s Men maker, Alan Pakula, was most impressed. “River was unlike anything Bob saw [growing up], or Sydney [Pollack] could have made… an amazingly delicate construct … It ticked all the boxes of all-time classic.” Not bad for what one Paramount suit rubbished as a goddamn movie about trout!
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 1