Can the last Robert Redford-Paul Newman project survive?

Earlier this week, directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton (Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks) revealed that they were approached in 2006 with an adaptation of Bill Bryson's memoir-travelogue Walking Through The Woods, set to star Hollywood icons Robert Redford and Paul Newman before Newman's untimely death in 2008.

Walking Through the Woods, about an attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail that quickly turns into a farce, would have been the third collaborative effort between Newman and Redford. Both had previously worked together in the Hollywood classics The Sting and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Though the husband and wife directorial duo were initially excited by the project, Faris relayed in an interview on a podcast with Empire that it would not have worked out. She explained, "[T]o work with an actor [Redford] who's also a director and a producer is a tricky thing. [...] It became clear that we didn't want to make the same movie so we parted ways, but it was exciting thinking about it. It could have been a really fun film, actually." The film most likely would have been the last Newman/Redford production.

The ship for a Newman/Redford cast roster has sailed, but the project is still in the works, with Barry Levinson (The Natural, another Redford flick) rumored to be at helm, and author Richard Russo (Empire Falls) purportedly working on the screenplay. But still: a brief moment of silence for what might have been.