Robert Redford to take A Walk in the Woods

[twickster]

Robert Redford is going to play Bill Bryson in a movie version of A Walk in the Woods. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080126/ap_en_mo/film_sundance_redford)

Somehow Redford isn't who I think of in that role.

[rocking chair]

he is rather wilderness savvy....

i do enjoy mr redford. however, he is the poster boy for why to wear sunscreen. i gotta agree with you on this one, twickster.

[Green Bean]

Well, I guess if you're Robert Redford, you get to play whoever the heck you want.

But what I really want to know is--Who's gonna play Katz?

[koeeoaddi]

Somehow Redford isn't who I think of in that role.
I can't remember, does Bryson's dad show up in the book? Cause that might work better.

[RickJay]

he is rather wilderness savvy....
Which would make him exactly the wrong guy to play Bryson, a portly writer who devoted the entire second chapter of the book to a history of bear attacks.

Bryson is FUNNY. The interaction between him and Katz is FUNNY. The person who plays Bryson must be funny, and can't look like Robert Redford. Oliver Platt, maybe.

But that said, I don't know how the book is filmable, unless you're pretty much just abandoning the book and writing a very different story. The book has no story, really, in movie terms; a guy walks part of the Appalachian Trail with his old stoner buddy. They give up and go home. That's it. Much of the book's humor is ion Bryson's side stories, where he'll launch into somne retrospective, or explain the strange history of things about or along the Trail.

[SmackFu]

Bill Bryson isn't that old, is he?

[Julius Henry]

I hadn't heard of this before, but apparently it's an old story. This is from Wikipedia's entry on the book:
In 2005 Robert Redford announced that he was interested in adapting Bryson's book into a film, and in playing Bryson himself. He also hoped that his erstwhile co-star and friend, Paul Newman, would team up with him to play the role of Katz, although he jokingly expressed doubt as to whether the health-conscious Newman would consider putting on enough weight (and eating enough donuts) to accurately portray the rotund Katz.
By the way, Redford is 15 years older than Bryson, making him about 25 years older than Bryson was when he hiked the AT.

[Baldwin]

Don't know about the movie, but this thread makes me want to read the book. (I've only walked little bits of the Appalachian trail, but in my younger days I planned out a trek over its whole length. Not going to happen.)

[Xema]

I actually met a guy who told me he'd once started to through-hike the AT but decided to quit after a week or so. His explanation: "It really wasn't what I expected."

And he'd never heard of the book. (This was some years ago, not that long after the book was published.)


I concur that Robert Redford looks like a strange fit to the role of Bill Bryson. No doubt the story would be heavily "adapted" if such a movie is actually made.

[Beware of Doug]

Bryson (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2007/05/02/nbryson02.jpg) should, nay must, be played by Philip Seymour Hoffman (http://www.betterthanfudge.com/img/psh.jpg). Same physical type, younger (16 years - book is ±10 years), and most importantly, same speaking voice, a slightly adenoidal mid-Atlantic light tenor.

For Katz, perhaps Jack Black? He has to be a lovable sleazebag.

Redford can direct. Newman can play the old cabbie who takes Bryson and Katz to Gatlinburg.

[eleanorigby]

Yes, I second Hoffman and Black. I think a film could be made from the book, but it would take patient and skilled screenwriters and a producer who was more interested in the material than a quick profit.


That's an oxymoron. Never mind, the film will never be made.

[Telemark]

Don't know about the movie, but this thread makes me want to read the book. (I've only walked little bits of the Appalachian trail, but in my younger days I planned out a trek over its whole length. Not going to happen.)
The book has little to do with the reality of hiking the AT. It's an interesting read, but IMO it's a combination of fantasy and wishful thinking, starting from a tiny bit of factual experience.

[Beware of Doug]

...the film will never be made.Certainly it will never be made well.

[Green Bean]

Hoffman and Black? Excellent!

[Beware of Doug]

OK, that's three of us. Now how do we get in touch with Redford and get him on the clue bus here?

[Ceejaytee]

Four of us. It sounds great, at least, our way.

Robert Redford is just wrong for the part. Hal Holbrook would be better. Hey, know any 80 year old stoner geezer who could play Katz to Holbrook's Bryson?

[twickster]

Four of us. It sounds great, at least, our way.

Robert Redford is just wrong for the part. Hal Holbrook would be better. Hey, know any 80 year old stoner geezer who could play Katz to Holbrook's Bryson?
I think that would be Dennis Hopper. :p

[ShadowFacts]

Damn, and here I was hoping this was an adaptation of the Lee Blessing play. Oh well.

[Ceejaytee]

I think that would be Dennis Hopper. :p

That is inspired casting. :)

[gazpacho]

The movie that is made will be a buddy movie with Katz and Bill experiencing character growth and coming to a greater understanding of each other. Which will make it nothing like the book at all. Maybe an OK movie but not really the book.

The book is funny and interesting mostly for the parts that would be hard to film. It is good mostly because of the digressions and narration about things along the trail. It will be a really tedious movie if the two characters say these things to each other.

[stpauler]

I loved that book up until...



Bryson quit the AT. It was definitely a let down and I understand why he did it, but never could get over that.

[Telemark]

Bryson quit the AT. It was definitely a let down and I understand why he did it, but never could get over that.
He was never hiking the full AT to begin with. It doesn't read true to anyone who has hiked the AT, or spent time with folks on the AT. I still contend that the vast majority was made up and/or he never intended to hike end-to-end.
Frankly, his time off the AT was nonsensical and factually incorrect in several places.