James McAvoy turns his piercing blue eyes (c’mon, we all know it’s true) towards defending a woman charged with collaborating with John Wilkes Booth to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln in the 19th century courtroom drama, The Conspirator.
Robert Redford’s name has been popping up in the news of late, what with the 2011 Sundance Film Festival going on, and now an official trailer for his next directorial effort, The Conspirator, is online.
X-Men: First Class‘ Charles Xavier (McAvoy) stars in The Conspirator as Frederick Aiken, a 28-year-old Civil War vet who fought for the Union, but is now a lawyer tasked with defending Mary Surratt (Robin Wright) – the owner of a boarding house where over half a dozen men assembled to (allegedly) plan out the murder of the 16th U.S. president. What the court, not having access to Lincoln’s personal diaries, fails to realize is that this was actually all just the work of a lone blood-sucking creature of the night with a vendetta against Honest Abe for slaughtering his brethren. 
(That’s an Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter joke for those wondering.)
The Conspirator boasts quite the impressive and eclectic collection of thespians, including McAvoy, Wright, Oscar-nominee Tom Wilkinson, Oscar-winner Kevin Kline, and Evan Rachel Wood (The Ides of March), along with more mainstream names like Justin Long (Live Free or Die Hard) and Alexis Bledel of Gilmore Girls fame. And yes Scott Pilgrim fans, that is Young Neil ( a.k.a. actor Johnny Simmons) as Mrs. Surratt’s son/Lincoln assassination conspirator, John Surratt.
Watch the trailer for The Conspirator (courtesy of Yahoo! Movies) below:
Cinematic courtroom procedurals are generally romanticized and tend to feature the sort of behavior that makes for entertaining (if hammy) drama on the big screen, but would never be tolerated in a real-life trial setting. The Conspirator looks to have embraced that genre cliché, for better or worse, as the trailer alone features upwards of dozen scenes in which people cry out in protest or make meaningful statements in a weighty but exaggerated tone while court is in session.
The Conspirator does look like it has potential, what with the intriguing subject matter, accomplished cast, and Oscar-winner Redford at the helm – not to mention the solid production design, costumes (lots of fake beards and suits in this one), and lighting of the footage on display. Whether it will make for a much more engaging affair than Redford’s last film, Lions for Lambs, remains to be seen.
The Conspirator arrives in U.S. theaters on April 15th, 2011.
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I have been looking forward to this film for awhile now.
I hope its a good one .
I was going to say that I felt bad for actor Tom Wilkinson for having last place in credits but then.. didn’t some famous actress initiate that AND business?
Possibly insightful if brief article, although it does take away from the wonder of the trailer. Looks good!
Knowing Redford’s political leanings, and his inability to refrain from lecturing us poor uneducated sods who are too stupid to agree with him, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that this looks like yet another anti-Bush movie, with period trappings.
So the real question is, is it even possible to be a worse film than Rendition or Redacted?
Why do people feel the need to make movies like this? And why do people go watch them? There is no way this plot can be entertaining. No way. Redford has an agenda here and I will be missing it.
An excellent trailer and with such a superb cast and a truly great director, this will be a magnificent film!