Robert Redford and Nick Nolte take A Walk in the Woods

Robert Redford and Nick Nolte in, A Walk in the Woods

At 79 years of age, screen legend Robert Redford is showing no signs of slowing down. In his latest film  A Walk in the Woods, he buddies up with veteran actor  NIck Nolte to embark on a journey of a lifetime.

Based on the best selling novel (and real life exploits) Redford plays travel writer Bill Bryson who takes a long-lost old friend (Nick Nolte) for a hike along the Appalachian Trail, which stretches more than 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine - the longest continuous footpath in the world. The trail, which takes five to seven months to complete, traverses 14 states and crosses the Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah National Park, the Great North Woods of Maine and the Berkshires.

The role played by Nolte was originally intended to played by long time Redford friend and collaborator Paul Newman, but when Newman got ill with cancer and passed away in 2008 Redford was still intent on making the film. He had worked with Nick Nolte on The Company You Keep and decided he'd make a great companion for A Walk in the Woods.

The real life Bryson, best-selling author of self-deprecating accounts of his travels through Europe, the United States and Australia, and acclaimed books on science, language, Shakespeare and his own childhood in Iowa, is truly honored and quite tickled that he is being played by Redford in the movie.

As Bryson recently told the Sydney Morning Herald, watching himself being portrayed by Redford was "definitely surreal" but only for the first few minutes. " I was surprised by that," he says. "I thought it was going to be surreal for quite some time, but it was really only the first time when he opened his mouth. When the television interviewer character in the opening scene said, 'And our guest today is Bill Bryson', and it was Robert Redford, that was a little surreal.

I spoke with both Robert Redford and Nick Nolte in Los Angeles about working on this amazing project together and about the adventures they'd still like to take.  

You can watch both interviews by clicking the link below.

A WALK IN THE WOODS IS IN THEATRES ON SEPTEMBER 2ND.