Thaindian News

Aug 18 (IBNS) Robert Redford has an acute interest in political topics. The actor is now all set to direct the historical drama “The Conspirator,” the story of Mary Surratt, alleged conspirator of Abraham Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth.

Riskybusiness blog reported that Greg Shapiro, Rob and Web Stone and Brian Peter Falk are producing the movie the production will start this fall. Bill Holderman is co-producing.

James Solomon, who is represented by WME and executive producer on New York Yankees tale “The Bronx is Burning,” has penned the screenplay.

Like “Conspirator,” the ESPN original series is also a story set in a politically turbulent time, the volatile summer of 1977 in New York City.

James McAvoy will be in lead in the movie, which is a compelling story of a Washington D.C. boardinghouse owner who sympathized with the Confederates, she was allegedly part of the plot to kill Lincoln, supplying Wilkes Booth and his accomplice David Herold weapons at her tavern after the assassin had shot the president at Ford’s Theater.

Surratt’s son John was also alleged to be part of the conspiracy. Mary Surratt was eventually convicted and hanged for conspiring to kill the president; her son went on the lamb and eventually was put on trial but was never convicted, living until 1916.

Redford’s latest directorial effort was “Lions for Lambs,” the United Artists film that centered on a series of interlocking tales in and around the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That film was a boxoffice disappointment, but Redford has not shied away from politics before or since. credits.