No kidding: Sundance almost didn't happen for Robert Redford

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the premiere of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid -- gosh, has it really been around that long? -- Sean P. Means of The Salt Lake City Tribune tracked down Robert Redford for a rare interview. According to Means, "the seemingly predestined path from The Sundance Kid to everything that now bears the Sundance name -- the ski resort, the institute, the film festival, the cable channel and the catalog store -- was a combination of luck, timing and happenstance." That's because, as Redford admits, he wasn't the first choice for the role that has become so closely associated with his life and work: "I was sent up to read for Butch Cassidy, because that was the more obvious role -- you know, more lively and more comic, more energetic and youthful, because I was about 13 years younger than Paul [Newman]. The original title of [William] Goldman's screenplay was The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy, because Paul was going to play the Sundance Kid." But a funny thing happened on the way to production...