Robert Redford is a choosy director

Robert Redford directed Pete's Dragon. Photo: EPA

Whatever is that indefinable quality that makes a star, Robert Redford has always had it in spades.

It is not just about looking the part, either. For as devastating as those blue eyes and classically handsome features were in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969), The Way We Were (1973), All The President’s Men (1976) and Out Of Africa (1985) – movies which have made him one of the biggest screen icons of the 20th century – the actor has long since moved beyond that to become a respected director and, through his Sundance Institute and Film Festival, a champion of independent cinema.