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…
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. James 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. Alexis Bledel plays Aiken’s wife, Catherine Morgan. Tom Wilkinson will play Reverdy Johnson, the former attorney general who as U.S. Senator is the mentor to the young lawyer, and sympathetic to Surratt. Kevin Kline plays Lincoln’s War Secretary Edwin Stanton
Evan Rachel Wood plays Mary’s daughter Anna Surratt. Justin Long plays McAvoy’s character’s best friend, a one-armed Civil War veteran. And last but not least, Toby Kebbel (Rocknrolla) will play John Wilkes Booth
* Here’s another look at Alexis Bledel for no particular reason
