Robert Redford Teams With ‘Ain’t Them Bodies Saints’ Director

Robert Redford has decided to team with David Lowery, director of the buzzing independent film Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, according to a Thursday report from The Hollywood Reporter.

According to the website, the project will be called The Old Man and the Gun, based off a 2003 article in The New Yorker by writer David Grann.

Grann’s article focused on Forrest Tucker, a lifelong bank robber born in 1920, who spent most of his life in jail or escaping. All told, he slipped out of 18 jails and prisons in his lifespan, including Alcatraz and San Quentin.

Grann caught up with Tucker at age 78. At that point, he lived in a retirement community with his third wife and still dabbled in the art of the holdup.

Police captured him in 2000 after a high-speed chase that ended with a 13-year prison sentence. Tucker died in 2005.

The 76-year-old Redford will play the lead and produce along with Bill Holderman and Conde Nast. He has also recently accepted a central role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Robert Redford will play a senior official in S.H.I.E.L.D. for the sequel.

As for David Lowery, his gritty film Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, which has mysterious parallels to Disney’s classic Pete’s Dragon, has already landed him a writing assignment to re-imagine the classic live-action / cartoon hybrid about a boy and his reptile, according to Deadline.

With Bodies, a darling at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Casey Affleck stars as an escaped convict on a journey to reunite with his wife and the daughter he’s never met. Here, Lowery and crew talk about the production.

Coincidentally, Pete’s Dragon followed an escaped boy on the run from his abusive parents in search of the family he never had.

Lowery’s motif of characters on the run from authority has developed quickly and The Old Man and the Gun will only add to it.

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints will co-star Rooney Mara, Rami Malek, and Keith Carradine. It is slated for a wide release on August 16, 2013.

Are you enthused about Robert Redford returning to the screen in a starring role for The Old Man and the Gun? Which of David Lowery’s films are you most interested in seeing?

[Image via s_bukley / Shutterstock.com]