The Sting "making of" featurette, "The Art of the Sting", included interviews with cast and crew. The film was released on Blu-ray in 2012, as part of Universal's 100th anniversary releases. The Sting The Sting is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936, involving a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss (Robert Shaw). The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who had directed Newman and Redford in the western "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". Created by screenwriter David S. Ward, the story was inspired by real-life cons perpetrated
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid characters did not flee to South America. When Goldman protested that that was what had happened, the studio head responded, "I don't give a shit. All I know is John Wayne don't run away." Goldman rewrote the script, "didn't change it more than a few pages, and subsequently found that every studio wanted it." The role of Sundance was offered to Jack Lemmon, whose production company, JML, had produced the film "Cool Hand Luke" (1967) starring Newman. Lemmon, however, turned down the role; he did not like riding horses, and he felt he had already played too many aspects of