Robert Redford starts production company with Watergate documentary

PanARMENIAN.Net - Robert Redford has launched a new production company, Sundance Productions, with a documentary about the Watergate scandal among the first projects on the slate for the company, the actor said, according to The Wrap.

Redford's partner in the venture is Laura Michalchyshyn, a programmer, producer and television executive who has worked for the Sundance Channel, Discovery Communications and Alliance Atlantis.

The company will "create, develop and produce authentic fiction and nonfiction content programming that can be distributed on broadcast and cable TV, digital platforms and channels," according to a release announcing the launch. Redford said that Sundance Productions will strive to "address critical stories across a multitude of relevant platforms." "Interesting talent and smart collaboration in creating special television content and media -- that’s what we’re about," Michalchyshyn added.

The company's slate will launch with two productions, among them "All the President's Men Revisited," a two-hour television documentary commissioned by Discovery Channel Worldwide. "All the President's Men Revisited" will explore the Watergate scandal, providing "an overview of the startling history with a deeper investigation into the legacy of the greatest constitutional crisis in modern times."

Redford played journalist Bob Woodward, one half of the team that broke the Watergate story, in the 1976 film "All the President's Men." The actor will narrate and executive-produce the project in association with Michalchyshyn and Andy Lack. Peter Schnall, who's produced and directed such government-centered projects as "George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview" and "Secret Service Files," will direct. Sundance hopes for a January 2013 broadcast.

The Watergate scandal was a political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. The scandal eventually led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, the President of the United States, on August 9, 1974, the only resignation of a U.S. President. The scandal also resulted in the indictment, trial, conviction and incarceration of 43 people, including dozens of top Nixon administration officials.