Robert Redford Hoped to Make a Sequel to ‘The Candidate,’ Decades After the Original Film

While Robert Redford was no fan of sequels for the better part of his career, there was one movie of his that remained a top candidate for a follow-up, even decades after the original hit theaters.

The legendary actor, filmmaker and Sundance Institute founder, who died Tuesday at 89, leaves behind a legacy marked by such classics as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and All the President’s Men. In 1972, he starred in director Michael Ritchie’s political satire The Candidate as Bill McKay, an unlikely upstart candidate for the California Senate race who shakes up the establishment. The feature earned two Oscar nominations, including a win for Jeremy Larner’s screenplay.

Filmmaker Rod Lurie, who directed Redford (alongside James Gandolfini and Mark Ruffalo) in the 2001 film The Last Castle, tells The Hollywood Reporter that he and his star spent years bouncing around ideas for a planned sequel to The Candidate,…