It’s kind of like a 19th Century version of Oliver Stone’s JFK, with Robert Redford directing a movie about the aftermath of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. However I don’t think Redford’s going to say John Wilkes Booth didn’t do it, and that it was the CIA/Cubans/Russians/Mafia, or that there was a second shooter on a grassy knoll. However it does concern Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), who was charged in connection with the conspiracy to murder the President. James McAvoy plays Frederick Aiken, a lawyer who reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt and comes to believe that she is innocent of the charges against her (which revolved around the fact Booth and his accomplice, David Herold, were given firearms at a tavern she owned as they made their escape following the shooting – but whether Surratt knew about this is debatable). The trailer certainly sells the movie as a thriller rather than as a period drama, and it does look like it could be pretty good. Expect it in cinemas this spring.