Everybody is LINCOLN crazy

With Steven Spielberg brewing up Lincoln over at Dreamworks, and HBO chasing after John Wilkes Booth with Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Linoln's Killer, it seems like making movies about the bearded 16th president of these good ole United States is the cool thing to do right now. Taking that as a cue to make his own flick, Robert Redford has signed on to direct The Conspirator, an indie film about Mary Surrat, one of the supposed conspirators (clever title eh?) on the Lincoln assassination.

THR's Risky Business Blog has this about what the story will look like:

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 lam and eventually was put on trial but was never convicted, living until 1916.

The pic will also center on a young Union hero named Frederick Aiken who was appointed to defend Mary Surratt, and who comes to believe that the widow is innocent.

I'm not necessarilly sure I believe their "compelling" argument, but it sounds like it might be ok. The other two films that are in the works sound a bit more interesting than this side plot, but it has potential. Producers have their sites set on James McAvoy, but it doesn't specifically say who, presumably Booth.