Has Robert Redford sold out?

Having created one of the world’s leading indie film festivals in The Sundance Film Festival, Hollywood heavyweight veteran Robert Redford has come full circle joining the cash-cow that is the Marvel films. So has Big Red sold out?

Doing press rounds for his latest film, the political thriller The Company You Keep in which he directs and stars, Redford confirmed he was joining the cast of the Captain America sequel The Winter Soldier, (due to hit screens next April) playing the old school crime fighter's (Chris Evans) boss and the head of the string-pulling organisation begind The Avenger's universe S.H.I.E.L.D.

It seems a quaint move by the 76 year old who while not eschewing big Hollywood fare (Spy Game with Brad Pitt, Indecent Proposal) hasn’t exactly embraced it either, not on this scale anyways.

On his decision to join the ranks of Disney’s Marvel Studios - whose The Avengers became the third biggest film of all time last year behind Avatar and Titanic raking in a global haul of $US1.5 billion – Redford told Spinoff Online;

 “I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something just to be different. Something bold, different. And that felt like a good thing to do. That was it, nothing more to it than that. Well, it’s bold in terms of expectations, I guess.”

"Joining the Marvel behemoth would seem a quaint move from the man who created one of the world's leading indie film fests in Sundance."

Furthermore he talked of his admiration for the Marvel films in an L.A Times Q&A session;

“I think these films are really powerful. I think they’re great. This is the kind of film I would have loved to see as a kid… I like the idea of stepping into new territory. I’m excited by it.”

Redford thought long and hard about joining Marvel.
Did he deserve another Rolex? Yes he did.

But this is the man who famously borrowed his Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid namesake to create one of the world’s leading indie film festivals, a man who has never shied away from starring in and directing films that aren’t exactly safe territory in Hollywood (All the President’s Men, A River Runs Through It).

So has Redford sold out by agreeing to star in a Marvel film? He doesn’t think he has.

“There's no money in those films," he jests.

You can catch Robert Redford in his heyday tonight in The Great Gatsby on ABC2 at 9.30pm (AEST). The Company You Keep opens April 18.