The iconic Al Pacino role that Robert Redford turned down

Thu 12 June 2025 14:30, UK

Everything changed for Hollywood during the 1970s; the studio system became a thing of the past, and independent directors moved from the bottom rungs of the ladder to the very top. Genuinely risky ideas were rewarded and celebrated, with cinemas being packed with films created by auteurs who had no interest in playing it safe. Whether it be Apocalypse Now, The Exorcist or The Graduate, Hollywood reverted back to its former glory through challenging films that broke free of the creative chokehold, regardless of how people responded to them. 

However, alongside this new system came a few downsides that changed the industry forever, with Robert Redford having his first taste of these changes after witnessing the frustrating new bureaucracy that infiltrated the pre-production period, leading him to back out of an iconic role that went to another A-list actor.

After the success of films like Jaws, The Godfather and Star Wars, the framework of film production began to shift as producers realised that they could earn lucrative amounts of money from fairly low-budget projects. Naturally, they wanted to milk this for every penny it could bring, leading to new ways of making films that capitalised on the marketability of each project and maximised the amount of money that could be made.  

As a result, the point system and ‘movie packages’ were created, all with the sole focus of squeezing as much profit as possible out of a film and enticing artists through higher salaries, something that was done by allotting them a certain percentage of the overall profits. This proved to be most effective for George Lucas when creating Star Wars, with Alec Guinness earning several millions after being given 2.25% of the gross royalties.

But while this might have been profitable for some people, it wasn’t always enjoyable for those on the other end of these deals, with Redford discussing how he backed out of one role due to the changes in Hollywood that led some creatives to become disillusioned by wealth and lose touch with the heart of good storytelling.

Serpico was a huge project for Sidney Lumet, with the director uniting with Al Pacino for the first time and forming a working relationship that would become crucial to his body of work. However, fate intervened after Redford was initially in talks to play the lead role, with the actor sharing that he backed out of the project after it secured an agent.

When discussing this, Redford said, “That’s when all the nonsense of deal-making and points positioning took over. It was a shame, because I was interested in Frank as a human being, and his story of the little guy against the institution was exactly what I loved.”

While the character interested Redford, filmmaking became a little different after these new systems took place, with agents becoming heavily involved in pre-production and altering the natural progression of the process. He might have been after a story that was anti-institution, but ultimately, the institution of Hollywood itself got in the way, and who knows what would have happened had Lumet joined forces with Redford instead of Pacino.

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