Redford, Newman reunite

NEW YORK — Robert Redford recently did something not so unusual for him. He hung out with his pal Paul Newman.

But what was different: He did it for a documentary to air on Sundance Channel, the cable network he founded but seldom appears on.

"Iconoclasts" brings together a pair of innovators from different fields for one to serve as a guide into the world of the other. Like chef Mario Batali on rocker Michael Stipe. Actress Renee Zellweger on correspondent Christiane Amanpour.

Or Redford on Newman beyond his role as screen legend. It premieres tonight at 11 (with additional play dates).

"It was never going to be 'The Paul and Bob Show,' " says Redford, who also executive-produced the series. "Instead, the idea of me presenting a friend who was also a colleague to speak about what inspired him — his salad-dressing company, his racing interests, his camp for children — those were areas that I thought were worthy of attention.

"And I thought maybe some day he can turn around and present me, and let me talk about Sundance," says Redford, adding an affectionate gibe — "which he probably won't do."

Redford, who at 68 still looks terrific, will be on TV in another capacity this month. He will be saluted (along with Tony Bennett, Suzanne Farrell, Julie Harris and Tina Turner) on "The 28th Annual Kennedy Center Honors," which, taped a couple of weeks ago, airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. MST on CBS.

But, sitting down with a reporter, he makes clear that his sights are fixed on 2006, when his Sundance mission will mark a pair of milestones: a decade for Sundance Channel, and a nice, round quarter-century for the Sundance Institute, the nonprofit organization dedicated to developing artists of independent vision and exhibiting their work.

"Sundance was started as a mechanism for the discovery of new voices and new talent," Redford explains. It was his response to concern in the late 1970s that movies were narrowing their focus: too commercially driven, too beholden to the youth market.

"When I started Sundance it was just to be a lab to give filmmakers a place to come and work, set on a small part of 5,000 acres of land I had bought in Utah to preserve," he says. Innovative films emerged there, just as he had hoped.

But what then? How would anybody see them? A Sundance film festival seemed the answer, and in 1985 it began in Park City.