Richard Linklater to direct 'A Walk in the Woods' with Robert Redford and Nick Nolte

There have been numerous attempts to bring Bill Bryson's humorous travel memoir A Walk in the Woods to the big screen. Robert Redford first announced his plans to play Bryson in the film more than eight years ago, with a failed hope of getting his old pal Paul Newman to co-star. Barry Levinson and Chris Columbus circled the directing chair for awhile with little movement taking place until a couple of years ago when Nick Nolte came aboard. Nothing was heard from it since until now, with the LA Times reporting it will be Richard Linklater who directs.

As the head of the Sundance Film Festival, Redford has been linked to Linklater through the director's Before Sunrise trilogy, which frequently gets their first major exposure at the event.That includes this year's Before Midnight, which debuted in Park City back in January, so Linklater will be running around doing press before it hits theaters in May. But A Walk in the Woods has more than a few stylistic similarities to it which may be what drew Linklater to the material. Redford will play Bryson, a native Iowan who attempts to walk the Appalachian Trail with his overweight friend Stephen Katz, portrayed by Nolte. Richard Russo wrote the latest draft of the script, which is done in humorous fashion while mixing in some heavy topics of discussion between the two lead characters.

An exotic locale and a story mostly consisting of two people engaged in conversation? Sounds like it should be right up Linklater's alley, and with two veterans like Redford and Nolte this should be a film worth keeping a close watch on. Filming is set to begin this fall.