"We are very happy that Redford will be doing this Lincoln movie. It is completely different from what our DreamWorks Lincoln movie will be, and we believe that it will add to the commercial potential of our film. Lincoln as a subject is inexhaustible."
The words of Steven Spielberg to Variety, as yesterday Robert Redford cast both James McAvoy and Robin Wright Penn for his own Lincoln movie, the assassination aftermath drama The Conspirator. Spielberg is right of course. His Lincoln movie is to focus on the president's anguish over the Civil War whilst Redford's is more about the trial of the assassination conspirators. If anything the two films would compliment each other quite nicely. Yesterday's Variety said...
Wright Penn will play Mary Surratt, the only woman among a group charged with conspiring to kill the president. McAvoy will play Frederick Aiken, an idealistic young war hero who reluctantly defends Surratt and in the process comes to believe she is innocent.
That movie begins filming next month but Spielberg's is still no where to be seen, as he is more interested in playing with invisible rabbits than Lincoln. Though he still says "will be" to the trade but is anyone even remotely convinced he will ever make this picture. Just to reiterate this further, yesterday also came the words from Harrison Ford that a story had been locked for Indiana Jones V, and it was just a case of George Lucas completing a screenplay to the liking of everyone. Which to be fair given the trio's past history of finding a story they all agree on, might not be as easy a task as you might think. Who thinks Spielberg will bump Liam Neeson again, and cast him aside to go the safe route of another Indy movie? Indy V - starring Shia LaBeouf and Harrison Ford (probably in that order, unfortunately) seems inevitable.
