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Robert Redford to beat Spielberg to the punch? LINCOLN.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/18/steven-spielberg-abraham-lincoln-biopic

Steven Spielberg's plan for an Abraham Lincoln biopic, with Liam Neeson in the title role, is under threat from a rival project by fellow Oscar-winner Robert Redford, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Their Risky Business blog reports that Redford is planning a film centred around the assassination of the US president by actor and Confederacy sympathiser John Wilkes Booth. The tale, to be titled The Conspirator, would focus on the story of Mary Surratt, allegedly one of Booth's aides.

Surratt ran a boarding house in Washington and is alleged to have supplied Wilkes Booth with weapons at her tavern as he attempted to make a getaway after shooting the president at Ford's Theater in 1865. She was eventually convicted and hanged for conspiring to kill the president. Redford's film will also feature a young Union lawyer named Frederick Aiken who comes to believe that Surratt is innocent after being appointed to defend her.

Redford is said to be chasing James McAvoy for one of the lead roles. The Sundance film festival founder aims to shoot in the autumn - long before Spielberg looks likely to begin work on his long-gestating project - from a screenplay by James Solomon, writer of US TV series The Bronx is Burning.

Hollywood has a history of getting itchy feet when two rival biopics pop up at the same time. Pierce Brosnan's plan for a Dylan Thomas biopic was partly scuppered by the emergence of The Edge of Love, released last year. And when two similar films do make it to the box office, one tends to suffer: Toby Jones won plaudits for his portrayal of Truman Capote in 2006's Infamous, but it was Philip Seymour Hoffman who took home the Oscar that year for his portrayal of the writer in Capote, which beat its rival into cinemas by nearly a year.

I think this is great. I think this might force Stevie to get his ass into gear on Lincoln.

Article is more than a week old, but I couldn't find any thread on it and this is the first I've heard of it.
 

Lakitu

st5fu
Spielberg has been taking too long so it's his own fault. If he focused on creating original movies instead of turds like The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull... yeah, that'd be better.
 
He should do an alternative timeline...basically one that involves Lincoln not getting assassinated and Liam Neeson getting to the bottom of the plot to kill him by kicking ass for two hours.
 

Bregor

Member
It sounds to me like the focus of the two movies is completely different, I don't see how this would effect Spielbergs project.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
This is silly and stupid. It's not even a Lincoln biopic, it's about someone who aided Booth. Sounds like the film would primarily be post-assassination, too and possibly more of a legal drama.

This is as much a rival project as the planned David Simon and Tom Fontana miniseries about the post-assassination hunt for Booth.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Wii said:
Excellent!
Maybe now Spielberg will do Interstellar first :D
Who has time for that when Harvey is screaming out for a remake?
 

Veidt

Blasphemer who refuses to accept bagged milk as his personal savior
I think Redford might actually have a better vision for Lincoln. So I support this. I honestly, don't like Spielberg's recent films. For me, he's fallen off. But then again, I'm probably the only person that doesn't like E.T either.
 

Solo

Member
Hilarious. As much as I love Spielberg, this is funny. Hes been talking about the movie for 17 years now, and hes going to get "beat to the punch".

Wii said:
Excellent!
Maybe now Spielberg will do Interstellar first :D

Id wager my left nut that neither Lincoln nor Interstellar will have been made within the next 10 years.
 

John Dunbar

correct about everything
Sounds like two completely different movies. And it's Lincoln, for Christ's sake, not an adaptation of some novel. Nobody thinks movies like Frost/Nixon or Valkyrie were "beaten to the punch" because there's already a shitton of movies with Hitler or Nixon.
 
Solo said:
Hilarious. As much as I love Spielberg, this is funny. Hes been talking about the movie for 17 years now, and hes going to get "beat to the punch".



Id wager my left nut that neither Lincoln nor Interstellar will have been made within the next 10 years.

Spielberg to make Lincoln next confirmed! :lol
 

Solo

Member
Scullibundo said:
Spielberg to make Lincoln next confirmed! :lol

But Ive been saying this for a few years now, my man! Since then, we've gotten Indy IV and Tintin, and still neither of these pics in sight.
 
These are different times Solo. These days you can actually go on the internet and download a trailer for James Cameron's AVATAR.
 
I guess the bird will be flying solo from now on

703828.gif
 

zethren

Banned
So, like, Solo's bet is bound by the strongest of all bonds by having been posted on GAF is it not?

Someone has to lose a nut.

Edit:

Solo
he got what he thought he wanted,
but lost that which was most important
lol it's so poetic.
 

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
Unfreakingbelievable.

Amazing bump.
 
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