Redford Takes Aim at Lincoln Assassination Movie

One of the projects I've been waiting to see get off the ground is Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. The subject is, of course, one of the more important ones in American history. There are few directors with a knack for history that Spielberg shows. He has had Liam Neeson lined up for ages, and in my own mind, I have Jeremy Davis (Cpl. Upham from Saving Private Ryan and Daniel Faraday on Lost) as John Wilkes Booth. That would be a hell of a movie. But Spielberg keeps delaying it for reasons I can't understand and now Robert Redford is going make a very similar movie. The Hollywood Reporter indicates that Redford is directing The Conspirator, the story of Mary Surratt, who had a hand in setting up the Lincoln assassination. The rumor is they want James McAvoy for one of the roles, and though Mary Todd Lincoln was certainly no looker, I'd guess if this is true they probably have him in mind for Booth, which I don't really see, or a Union soldier appointed to defend Surratt at trial. Surratt supplied weapons for Booth and David Herold and was eventually (SPOILER ALERT) hanged for her role in the killing. That casting, obviously, would be key. Unlike Lincoln or even Booth, where you're probably better served getting a good actor that fits a "type", Surratt is more of an unknown quantity, so there could be some flexibility there. Though the story is just one of the threads that would be explored in Spielberg's Lincoln, it is similar enough to make a little doubt creep in that DreamWorks will ever get going with that bio-pic. And that would be a real shame.