This looks like a beautiful tribute to Redford.
One of the most audaciously original narratives I have seen this decade. “A Ghost Story” was shot with friends Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck as a personal side project while Director David Lowery was also filming "Pete’s Dragon." "A Ghost Story" was not, in any sense, “scary” as much as it is was an engrossing meditation on life and death. The less you knew about it, the better.
I had spoken last year with Lowery at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival, in an extensive and in-depth interview, about his latest film, and his upcoming one "Old Man and the Gun" with Robert Redford, whose trailer has just been released today.
On Redford and "Old Man and the Gun":
We became [he and Redford] friends after that film. We developed a few other things together, so working together was always paramount and was something we both wanted to do. We have this sci-fi film that we’ve both been working together on that will maybe happen one day. We just finished shooting the third film together called “The Old Man and the Gun” where he gets to share the screen with Robert Redford. When I got to the point of casting “A Ghost Story” he was the first person I went to, but I also wanted him and Rooney simultaneously because I wanted the chemistry they had. I knew they had a great chemistry together and I wanted both of them to be in this movie for that reason.
On "The Old Man and the Gun” being experimental like “A Ghost story.”
It’s weird to call it experimental because it’s not experimental in the way “A Ghost Story,” but for me, it was just as much of an experiment. Audiences will see "The Old Man and the Gun" next year and think that, in comparison to "A Ghost Story," it'll feel very much like a traditional movie. It'll feel like a completely different type of movie because it's fun, it's lighthearted, it is just a romp, in some ways, and, at the same time for me, that's an experiment. I think a movie that functions that way is experimental because I just don't normally think that way, particularly when it comes to this being funny, I have the funny bone in the world, I enjoy laughing, I love laughing all the time. That was my goal. As much as I wanted to make a film that was delightful, it was still pretty experimental for me, but when you see it it'll feel relatively normal. It still has some weird stuff going on, it's very minimalist, there's not a lot of there, but it definitely is more lighthearted than anything I have done and it's, in many ways, a love letter to Robert Redford. As much as it's about him and his career, it also has a meta quality that could also be described as experimental, but when you watch the movie people will be like "Wow, David made a really normal movie." But for me making a normal movie is somewhat "experimental." I'm curious to see how the finished product looks like because like all experiments there is a chance for failure and I haven't quite crossed the threshold of success yet.
Official Synopsis:
"THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN is based on the true story of Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford), from his audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public. Wrapped up in the pursuit are detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck), who becomes captivated with Forrest’s commitment to his craft, and a woman (Sissy Spacek), who loves him in spite of his chosen profession."
“The Old Man And The Gun” opens on September 28, look for it at Telluride, Venice, and TIFF.