Rama's Screen

Earlier today, The Playlist reported that Evan Rachel Wood and Toby Kebbel have joined the cast of Robert Redford-directed period thriller/drama THE CONSPIRATOR, with the script written by James Solomon. We even got a couple of first look photos. about the infamous Mary Surratt, the woman President Andrew Johnson called as second only to John Wilkes Booth in the assassination plot of the 16th President of United States.
She sympathized with the Confederates and supplied Wilkes Booth and his accomplice weapons at her tavern after the murder took place at the Ford’s theater. Surratt’s son John was also alleged to be part of the conspiracy, was also put on trial but was never convicted.
Mary Surrat, however, was found guilty. She went down in history as the first woman ever executed by the United States federal government, and was hanged by the neck til dead in 1865. And now Variety reported that the project has gained 3 more actors, Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline and Alexis Bledel. Read more after this jump to find out their roles in this movie… Read the rest of this entry »

THE CONSPIRATOR, directed by the great Robert Redford has already started production in Savannah Georgia and The Playlist scored some spy photos that gave us first look at James McAvoy and Evan Rachel Wood if they had lived in the 1800s. Previously announced, THE CONSPIRATOR is about the infamous Mary Surratt, the woman President Andrew Johnson called as second only to John Wilkes Booth in the assassination plot of the 16th President of United States.
She sympathized with the Confederates and supplied Wilkes Booth and his accomplice weapons at her tavern after the murder took place at the Ford’s theater. Surratt’s son John was also alleged to be part of the conspiracy, was also put on trial but was never convicted.
Mary Surrat, however, was found guilty. She went down in history as the first woman ever executed by the United States federal government, and was hanged by the neck til dead in 1865.

Robin Wright Penn is set to play Mary Surratt, maybe this will finally give Wright Penn the Oscar nomination that I think she should’ve gotten years ago for playing Jenny in Forrest Gump. McAvoy will play Frederick Aiken, an idealistic young war hero who reluctantly defends Surratt and in the process comes to believe she is innocent. Whether or not she was guilty enough to deserve a death penalty would be one of the issues tackled by this drama/thriller which would show the volatile days following the assassination, people feared that another civil war would happen again. I wonder if McAvoy could do the accent.
Rachel Wood plays Mary’s daughter Anna Surratt and recently joining the cast is Justin Long as McAvoy’s character’s best friend, a one-armed Civil War veteran. The website also says Toby Kebbel (Rocknrolla) will play John Wilkes Booth

Variety had an interesting short article trying to find out if Steven Spielberg’s biopic project LINCOLN is still alive now that Robert Redford has come up with a competition, a drama/thriller titled THE CONSPIRATOR about the woman who helped John Wilkes Booth and his gang commit the tragic assassination. Spielberg basically wishes Redford well but he’s still determined to go forward with his own version of LINCOLN which will focus on the President’s anguish over the length and toll of the Civil War. The script is being revised by Tony Kushner, the pulitzer prize winner behind the great HBO’s Angels In America.

But deep in that article is also a talk of Spielberg’s actual next project which was announced not too long ago, the remake of the 1950 Jimmy Stewart classic HARVEY about a man named Elwood P. Dowd who makes friends with a spirit taking the form of a human-sized rabbit named Harvey that only he sees. Their friendship affects every member of the family and the community.
Tom Hanks at one point was rumored for the role but he said no. People have been calling Hanks the next Jimmy Stewart all his life, he probably didn’t wanna give the public the satisfaction of making it come true.
Anne Thompson did a voting to find out who should star in HARVEY but she left out a name that Variety said might be attached to the project.. Robert Downey Jr.
I think it’s a great choice, Downey Jr. could easily pretend talking to a six-foot rabbit. After playing an Australian playing a blackguy and getting Oscar nominated, everybody is convinced that Downey Jr. could even play Betty White if he needs to. The man is a fantastic actor and I hope he gets to star in HARVEY.. but the problem is he’s already doing a gazillion other projects including COWBOYS & ALIENS with Iron Man director Jon Favreau.

Real quick now, in case you girls are wondering what James McAvoy is up to next, the Scottish thesp is going back in time, to the post-civil war era to be exact. According to Variety, McAvoy and Robin Wright Penn have signed on to star in THE CONSPIRATOR, to be directed by the great Robert Redford. Previously announced, THE CONSPIRATOR is about the infamous Mary Surratt, the woman President Andrew Johnson called as second only to John Wilkes Booth in the assassination plot of the 16th President of United States.
She sympathized with the Confederates and supplied Wilkes Booth and his accomplice weapons at her tavern after the murder took place at the Ford’s theater. Surratt’s son John was also alleged to be part of the conspiracy, was also put on trial but was never convicted.
Mary Surrat, however, was found guilty. She went down in history as the first woman ever executed by the United States federal government, and was hanged by the neck til dead in 1865.

Wright Penn is set to play Mary Surratt, maybe this will finally give Wright Penn the Oscar nomination that I think she should’ve gotten years ago for playing Jenny in Forrest Gump. McAvoy will play Frederick Aiken, an idealistic young war hero who reluctantly defends Surratt and in the process comes to believe she is innocent. Whether or not she was guilty enough to deserve a death penalty would be one of the issues tackled by this drama/thriller which would show the volatile days following the assassination, people feared that another civil war would happen again.

Since the great Steven Spielberg keeps stalling on that LINCOLN project that was supposed to star Liam Neeson, somebody’s got to do something during this long boring wait. And that somebody is none other than the equally great legendary filmmaker Robert Redford. The man who gave birth to Sundance Film Festival and is known to be very vocal when it comes to politics, is going to take on THE CONSPIRATOR.

Yeah, sounds like a straight to DVD Jean Claude Van Damme B-Movie, but thank God that’s not the case. According to Riskybizblog, THE CONSPIRATOR is about the infamous Mary Surratt, the woman President Andrew Johnson called as second only to John Wilkes Booth in the assassination plot of the 16th President of United States.
She sympathized with the Confederates and supplied Wilkes Booth and his accomplice weapons at her tavern after the murder took place at the Ford’s theater. Surratt’s son John was also alleged to be part of the conspiracy, was also put on trial but was never convicted.
Mary Surrat, however, was found guilty. She went down in history as the first woman ever executed by the United States federal government, and was hanged by the neck til dead in 1865.
But that’s not all that THE CONSPIRATOR will focus on, the movie is also meant to be a drama/thriller, because of the volatile days following the assassination, people feared that another civil war would happen again.
Probably like the movie Thirteen Days when tension was felt in the White House as they faced Cuban Missile Crisis and what they feared to be a possible start of a nuclear war.

Producers Greg Shapiro, Rob and Web Stone and Brian Peter Falk want James McAvoy to play one of the lead roles in THE CONSPIRATOR which will start production this fall.