In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State.

The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth, and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks.

Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken, a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal.

Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her own son, John. As the nation turns against her, Surratt is forced to rely on Aiken to uncover the truth and save her life.

Take a look at the clips from the movie:

Robert Redford is back in the director’s chair later this year with his new movie The Conspirator – which follows the assassination of President Lincoln.

The movie boasts an all star cast of James Mcavoy. Robin Wright, Tom Wilkinson, Kevin Kline and Evan Rachel Wood.

In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth, and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks.

Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken, a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal.

Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her own son, John.

As the nation turns against her, Surratt is forced to rely on Aiken to uncover the truth and save her life.

The Conspirator is released 1st July. Take a look at a featurette that focuses on the assassination and the movie: