Robert Redford the financial proceeds of his acting success, starting with his salaries from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "Downhill Racer", Redford bought an entire ski area on the east side of Mount Timpanogos northeast of Provo, Utah, called "Timp Haven", which was renamed "Sundance". Redford's wife Lola was from Utah and they had built a home in the area in 1963. Portions of the movie "Jeremiah Johnson" (1972), a film which is both one of Redford's favorites and one that has heavily influenced him, were shot near the ski area. The Sundance Film Festival caters to independent filmmakers in
Robert Redford the film rights for the book from Bryson after reading it more than a decade earlier, with the intent of costarring in it with Paul Newman, but had shelved the project after Newman's death. In August 2018, Redford announced his retirement from acting after completion of "The Old Man & the Gun", which was released in September 2018. Redford had long harbored ambitions to work on both sides of the camera. As early as 1969, Redford had served as the executive producer for "Downhill Racer". His first film as director was 1980's Best Picture winner "Ordinary People", a drama about