Robert Redford

[MacGuffin]

'Enemies' enlists Robert Redford
Film to be based on Richard A. Clarke memoir
Source: Variety

After the upcoming "Lions for Lambs," Robert Redford will focus his attention on another political pic.

Redford is attached to helm the bigscreen adaptation of Richard A. Clarke's memoir "Against All Enemies" for producer John Calley.

Columbia Pictures had been developing the project, but the studio put it into turnaround last month. Capitol Films picked the project up and is raising financing. Redford's deal is pending financing.

Sony will distribute "Against All Enemies" in North America. The studio backed off producing the project in part because of the plethora of Iraq War-themed movies, even though this one is set inside the entrenched Washington bureaucracy.

Jamie Vanderbilt penned the screenplay, which centers on Clarke, the counterterrorism adviser to three presidents, who charged in his book that the Bush administration prioritized Iraq above threats from Al Qaeda both before and after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Tracy Falco is attached to produce as well.

Paul Haggis was attached to helm for Col. Vince Vaughn flirted with the role of World Trade Center security chief John O'Neill, who died in the Manhattan attacks. Sean Penn considered playing Clarke in the film but reportedly balked over his payday.

Redford directed and starred in United Artists' just-wrapped "Lambs," a thriller set against the backdrop of the Bush administration's war on terror. Pic also stars Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep.

[MacGuffin]

Robert Redford to conspire on Lincoln assassination pic
By Steven Zeitchik; Hollywood Reporter

Robert Redford is visiting the land of Lincoln.

The hyphenate with an acute interest in political topics will direct the historical drama "The Conspirator," the story of Mary Surratt, alleged conspirator of Abraham Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth.

The indie, which Greg Shapiro, Rob and Web Stone and Brian Peter Falk are producing, aims to shoot this fall. Bill Holderman is co-producing.

James Solomon, the WME-repped writer and exec producer on New York Yankees tale "The Bronx is Burning," 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.

Producers are out to cast, with James McAvoy said to be at the top of their list for one of the lead roles.

Surratt's is a compelling story. 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.

The period immediately after the Lincoln assassination was considered extremely volatile, with the country on the cusp of again falling into civil war; that period will provide a backdrop to the Redford-helmed tale.

Redford's most recent 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.

The founder of the Sundance Film Festival most notably starred in "The Candidate," about the an idealistic outsider Senate candidate who finds himself tempted by the power of image and spin in political campaigns.

He is also attached to direct "Against All Enemies," the adaptation of Richard Clarke's expose about the Bush administration's intelligence failures, though that project has become uncertain in the wake of the unraveling of Capitol Films, which was the most recent company to come aboard.

Lincoln has been the subject of attention by many in Hollywood, but lately projects have faced more obstacles than the president's legendary trek through the snow.

Steven Spielberg has been attached to direct "Lincoln," the biopic about the sixteenth president, but the the project that has been gestating for a long time at DreamWorks.

And HBO and Walden have been in development on a story about the search for Wilkes Booth after he pulled the trigger, based on James Swanson's "Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer." The project at an earlier stage had Harrison Ford attached to star, but its status is also uncertain.

Producer Shapiro is behind a number of movies, including those with political overtones, such as curren sleeper Iraq pic "The Hurt Locker." The Stones count "Gone in Sixty Seconds" and "The Negotiator" among their credits.

[Stefen]

This sounds far more interesting than Spielberg's Lincoln biopic.

[Pwaybloe]

Really?  Redford is a really good actor, but he's a pretty boring director.  I would put Clint Eastwood right up there with him.  They both make really interesting movies on paper, but the final product is a chore to get through. 

[Gold Trumpet]

Both Redford and Eastwood need good scripts to succeed. That being said, I'm more interested in Speilberg's take on Lincoln. He will be dealing with his entire life and considering all the recent books about Lincoln, it will be interesting how romantic or unromantic Speilberg makes Lincoln to be. I think Speilberg will take on some of the controversies so it could help the character profile.

[Stefen]

SPOILER:

In Lincoln by Steven Spielberg, Lincoln is the way he is because his father didn't pay enough attention to him. This leads him to do extraordinary things all in an effort to gain his fathers attention.

PREDICTABLE Spielberg. 

Actually, It's pretty obvious why Spielberg is interested in the film.

From Lincoln by David Herbert.

Lincoln and his stepmother were close; he called her "Mother" for the rest of his life, but he was increasingly distant from his father.[9]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln

[MacGuffin]

McAvoy, Penn set for 'Conspirator'
Duo to star in Redford-directed period drama
Source: Variety

James McAvoy and Robin Wright Penn are set to star in the Robert Redford-directed "The Conspirator," the period drama based on true events following the assassination of President Lincoln.

Pic, for which an October start date has been set, marks the first financed by the American Film Co., which is headed by online brokerage entrepreneur Joe Ricketts.

Redford will produce with Wildwood Enterprises' Greg Shapiro and Bill Holderman and American Film Co. execs Robert Stone, Webster Stone and Brian Falk.

James Solomon penned the script. Redford last directed "Lions for Lambs."

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.

Ricketts formed the American Film Co. to tell historically accurate American stories. As advisers on the pic the company has engaged Pulitzer Prize winner James McPherson and Lincoln assassination experts Thomas Turner and U.S. Army regimental historian Col. Fred Borch.

"Stories from our history are often more compelling than fiction," Ricketts said. "Mary Surratt's trial is a powerful, relevant story."

McAvoy has been rumored to be reprising his role in "Wanted 2" with director Timur Bekmambetov and possibly Angelina Jolie. "Wanted 2" is also likely to shoot in 2010. Wright Penn most recently starred in the Rebecca Miller-directed "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee."