(Credits: Far Out / Warner Bros / Ken Dare / Los Angeles Times)
Wed 3 December 2025 19:45, UK
Every time Paul Newman and Robert Redford were promoting their latest movie, they’d almost inevitably be asked the same question: when are they going to make another one together?
Audiences would eventually realise that they’d been spoiled by George Roy Hill’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting being released four years apart in 1969 and 1973, respectively, because the iconic ‘New Hollywood’ duo would never share the screen in another picture again.
Since those films were both classics, and Newman and Redford were two of the most prominent stars of their era, they remained linked for the rest of their careers. They were also close friends away from the silver screen, so the shadow of one would constantly follow the other around, and vice versa.
Newman ended up playing the leading role in The Verdict after Redford had been fired from the production, the former joked about co-starring with the latter in a hypothetical Indecent Proposal sequel, and he even warned the first-time filmmaker against making Ordinary People his debut feature, which ended up winning him an Academy Award for ‘Best Director’.
Tentative plans were afoot for the pair to reunite as the fathers of George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s characters in an Ocean’s sequel until an age-old feud nipped the idea in the bud, and Redford planned to re-team with Newman for A Walk in the Woods in a part that was eventually filled by Nick Nolte when the blue-eyed legend passed away before they could get back on set together.
There were what-ifs aplenty, and if Newman had more confidence in his range as a performer, they’d have gotten that third film off their to-do list in 1994. Technically, at least, since Redford produced and directed the ‘Best Picture’-nominated Quiz Show without appearing onscreen as a cast member.
The story finds John Turturro’s Herbie Stempel becoming a national hero after winning a game show, only to see his dreams of television stardom end in tatters when the network decides that Ralph Fiennes’ Charles Van Doren is a more appealing and telegenic prospect. Taking the fight to the very top, Stempel reveals that the series, Twenty One, is rigged, leading to a congressional investigation.
A dramatic retelling of real events, Van Doren came from a well-known family. His father, Mark, was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, scholar, and academic who spent almost 40 years as a professor at Columbia University, where he inspired countless aspiring writers, including Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.
It required a stately performer, and Redford knew just who to call. Unfortunately, Newman wasn’t interested and turned it down. “I would have been struggling with that patrician quality,” he offered. “You can take the kid out of Ohio, but you can’t take Ohio out of the kid.”
He wasn’t exactly lacking in range, but his mind was made up. He said no to his friend, and Paul Scofield was cast instead.
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