Steve McQueen - Marc Eliot [85]
Newman, grinning, said he wanted to kick back and hang out. Steve invited him to have a beer at the pool. Soon enough Newman brought up a script by William Goldman, who had written Soldier in the Rain. He was now a bestselling novelist as well as a hot screenwriter and also happened to be a close friend of Newman’s. Goldman, Newman told Steve, had written a killer western about two handsome, charming young antiheroes who rob banks. It was actually a very funny film, Newman emphasized, and he thought it would be perfect for the two of them. The working title was The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy. Newman wanted Steve to play the Sundance Kid.
Steve listened intently and said little except that he would think it over. Newman finished his beer, said goodbye, and left.
By the time Newman had come by Steve’s house that afternoon, Steve was already well aware of the project and had, in fact, been offered it before, when it seemed Newman would be unable to do the film. Though the script had been written specifically for Newman by Goldman, for a preemptive bid made by the studio for $400,000, Newman was in the middle of filming Jack Smight’s Harper. When the producers decided to move forward without him, Newman was deeply offended and felt that they should have waited for him to make the movie. At this point, according to David Foster, Steve was quietly offered the part of the Sundance Kid, but because the film couldn’t be made by or at least with Solar, Steve turned it down.
The part remained uncast (perhaps uncastable) until Newman was finally free to make it and he immediately signed on to play Sundance, with his good friend Jack Lemmon (whose production company made Cool Hand Luke) in the Butch Cassidy role. After meeting with the film’s director, George Roy Hill, Newman realized he was far better suited than Lemmon to play Butch. Shortly thereafter, Lemmon left the project. That left the role of Sundance still to be cast. Warren Beatty read the script and expressed interest, but to play Butch, and thought he could get Marlon Brando to play Sundance, but nobody wanted Brando, least of all Newman, and Beatty passed.
That’s when Newman stopped by Steve’s place. Steve knew that Lemmon, Beatty, and Brando had been considered before him. Still, he didn’t say no directly to Paul, but he knew that day he wouldn’t make the film.
According to Richard Zanuck, who was then the head of Fox, “The original title of the film was The Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy. That was when we were sure we had Paul Newman as Butch and Steve McQueen as Sundance. When Steve dropped out and a far less-known personality came in, Robert Redford, Paul, through his agent, wanted the title reversed to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
“Steve dropped out over billing. He was hotter than Paul at the time, having recently made The Great Escape, but Paul had been a star for many more years. They came into my office several times, with their representatives, and talked very frankly about who was bigger and who was less important. I had a globe and offered to split the world in two, with each star getting top billing in one half.”
Tom Rothman, the current head of Fox added, “Paul was Steve’s particular obsession. He was driven to get top billing over him.”
Zanuck continued, “Well, Steve was the bigger star, and when he wouldn’t take second position, he just conked out.”
The film opened with Newman and Redford in October 1969, made Redford a superstar, kicked Newman’s already hot career up ten notches, won several Oscars, grossed over $100 million in its initial domestic release, and remains