The Conspirator
Short description
The Conspirator takes place in Washington in 1865, just after the end of the Civil War, when President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated and the country is in turmoil. Mary Surratt, a widow who runs a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and his associates met, is arrested along with several men and accused of taking part in the conspiracy. Because the authorities fear that a civilian court would not convict her, she is put on trial before a military tribunal while much of the public demands revenge. Frederick Aiken, a young Union war hero and newly qualified lawyer, is assigned to defend her and does so reluctantly at first, but as the proceedings go on he comes to believe she may be innocent and is being used as bait to catch her son John.
Robert Redford directed the film, which he also produced, from a screenplay by Gregory Bernstein and James D. Solomon. It was his seventh directorial feature, arriving between Lions for Lambs and The Company You Keep. James McAvoy plays Aiken and Robin Wright plays Mary Surratt, with Evan Rachel Wood, Kevin Kline, Alexis Bledel and Danny Huston among the supporting cast. Made on a budget of 25 million dollars, it took about 16 million dollars worldwide, a modest return. On IMDb it holds 6.9 out of 10 from around 31,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.6 out of 10 from roughly 500 votes, while critics rated it 6.1 out of 10 from 170 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was the first for The American Film Company, which was specifically created to film movies about the history of the United States.
- Filming began in October 2009 in Savannah, Georgia, and ended in December of the same year.
- Many of the lines and dialogues in the script were taken directly from transcripts of court hearings.
- Robert Redford insisted that the actors in the film spend as much time as possible in costume, to get used to them and look more natural in them. It was consistently hot on the set, and at some point almost all of the actors in costume complained about the heat.
- Initially, Robin Wright was not ready to film due to personal reasons. Director Robert Redford wanted her to play the main role, and he delayed the start of work on the film for a while.
- Cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel deliberately refrained from using bright artificial lighting during filming, and as a result, the film acquired some resemblance to early photographs from approximately the same historical period, when attempts were made to add a little color to sepia tones (a natural dye secreted by the ink sacs of mollusks, having a light brown color).
- The film was shot in Savannah, Georgia. All the Washington landmarks were added to the frame using computer graphics. Spanish moss (an epiphytic plant lacking roots and clinging to tree bark with thread-like stems) had to be removed from the trees, as it does not grow in Washington.
- At one point, following a dispute with the producers, Justin Long 'kicked up a fuss' and refused to come to the set, halting work on the film for several hours. The scene was shot with a stand-in for Long, but he soon regained control and returned to filming.
- James McAvoy spoke with an American accent only during filming, and between takes his familiar Scottish accent could be heard again. Director Robert Redford asked the actor to speak with an English accent because he didn't understand Scottish.
- Immediately after the filming of the final scene on the last day of shooting, James McAvoy went to his trailer to shave off his beard.
- The stone that broke the window in the scene with James McAvoy and Evan Rachel Wood was real. During the filming of one of the takes, the stone was thrown with such force that it nearly hit James McAvoy.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
