Robert Redford would be a busy man even if he wasn’t 77 years old: appearing in the forthcoming “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” in going solo Oscar-possibility “All is Lost” and lining up to star in and direct “A Walk In The Woods,” an adaptation of Bill Bryson’s book about hiking the Appalachian trail alongside Nick Nolte, which he had planned to direct. Perhaps inevitably, something had to give.
Deadline is now reporting that “A Walk In The Woods” has finally settled on someone else to direct, namely Larry Charles, of “Borat” and “Bruno” fame. It’s somewhat hard to imagine what a script must be like if Charles, Redford and Richard Linklater (at one time) all seemed like possible directors for it, but the book—about Bryson teaming up with an old and immensely irritating high-school buddy to hike the trail—is very funny, and Charles is certainly the most obviously comedic of the names in the mix.
The book has been adapted by Michael Arndt, of “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Toy Story 3” and formerly “Star Wars: Episode 7” fame, so it has some pretty solid pedigree in the “hilarious, occasionally brutally poignant” line that you’d hope for for this project. Watch this space for release details.