By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

FILM LEGEND ROBERT REDFORD, DIRECTOR OF UPCOMING FILM “THE CONSPIRATOR,” TO THROW CEREMONIAL FIRST PITCH

INFO ABOUT REDFORD / CEREMONIAL FIRST PITCH

Robert Redford will be in Chicago to support his most recent directorial effort, The Conspirator, which opens in theatres nationwide April 15.  The debut film from The American Film Company, The Conspirator tells the true, widely unknown story of the lone woman (Robin Wright) charged in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the young Union lawyer (James McAvoy) who defended her.

A lifelong baseball fan, Redford was a high school teammate of Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale, and Redford earned a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado as a pitcher before turning his attention to his acting career.  During his legendary film career, Redford starred as Roy Hobbs, a player for the fictitious New York Knights, in the baseball classic, The Natural.  During the film, Hobbs hit a game-winning home run in the ninth inning that shatters the scoreboard clock at Wrigley Field (the scene was set at Wrigley Field but filmed in Buffalo).

COMPLETE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CHICAGO CUBS

CUBS ANNOUNCE OPENING DAY FESTIVITIES

RON SANTO, JR. TO LEAD SEVENTH-INNING STRETCH;
FILM LEGEND ROBERT REDFORD, DIRECTOR OF UPCOMING FILM “THE CONSPIRATOR”, AND A FAMILY SELECTED AT THE GAME TO THROW CEREMONIAL FIRST PITCHES;
NATIONAL 9/11 FLAG ON DISPLAY DURING NATIONAL ANTHEM

Friday, March 25, 2011

CHICAGO – The Chicago Cubs today announced festivities to take place on Opening Day, Friday, April 1 at Wrigley Field prior to and during their 1:20 p.m. game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Ron Santo, Jr., the son of the Cubs legend, will lead the crowd in the singing of the seventh-inning stretch; film legend and Academy Award winning director Robert Redford will throw out a ceremonial first pitch; and for the second year in a row, the Ricketts Family will select a family of Cubs fans at the game to throw a ceremonial first pitch.

Additionally, Wayne Messmer will sing the National Anthem with the National 9/11 Flag on display in the outfield.  Destroyed in the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and stitched back together seven years later by tornado survivors in Greensburg, KS, The National 9/11 Flag is a living testament to the resilience and compassion of the American people.  The flag is currently on a journey across the United States through the 10th Year Anniversary of 9/11.

The Cubs will also have a pre-game moment of silence in honor of those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and will conduct a collection at the ballpark to help raise funds for UNICEF to help children affected by the disaster.

During the last 13 seasons, no one led the crowd in the singing of the seventh-inning stretch more than Cubs legend Ron Santo, who passed away last December 3 at the age of 70.  His son and namesake, Ron Santo, Jr., will lead the crowd in the singing on April 1 and visit both the WGN Radio and WGN TV broadcast booths as the Cubs continue to remember his father and our friend with a series of events and commemorations throughout the 2011 season, including a No. 10 patch worn by all uniformed personnel and Ron Santo Day on August 10, when the Cubs will dedicate a statue in Santo’s honor.

Redford will be in Chicago to support his most recent directorial effort, The Conspirator, which opens in theatres nationwide April 15.  The debut film from The American Film Company, The Conspirator tells the true, widely unknown story of the lone woman (Robin Wright) charged in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the young Union lawyer (James McAvoy) who defended her.

A lifelong baseball fan, Redford was a high school teammate of Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale, and Redford earned a baseball scholarship to the University of Colorado as a pitcher before turning his attention to his acting career.  During his legendary film career, Redford starred as Roy Hobbs, a player for the fictitious Brooklyn Knights, in the baseball classic, The Natural.  During the film, Hobbs hit a game-winning home run in the ninth inning that shatters the scoreboard clock at Wrigley Field (the scene was set at Wrigley Field but filmed in Buffalo).

In addition to Redford, the Ricketts family for the second year in a row will randomly select a family at the game to throw a ceremonial first pitch.  Last year at Opening Day, the Sluga family from Arlington Heights was selected to throw a ceremonial first pitch.

– CUBS –

THE CONSPIRATOR Synopsis: The debut film from THE AMERICAN FILM COMPANY, THE CONSPIRATOR is directed by Robert Redford from a screenplay by James D. Solomon, and stars James McAvoy, Robin Wright as well as Alexis Bledel, James Badge Dale, Jonathan Groff, Danny Huston, Toby Kebbell, Kevin Kline, Justin Long, Colm Meaney, Stephen Root, Tom Wilkinson and Evan Rachel Wood.

Film synopsis:  In the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), 42, 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 (James McAvoy), a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. As the trial unfolds, 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.

THE CONSPIRATOR http://conspiratorthemovie.com/

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS / PRESS SITE http://www.roadsideattractionspublicity.com/login.php

THE AMERICAN FILM COMPANY http://www.theamericanfilmcompany.com/

Follow on Twitter @1865Lincoln

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One Response to “FILM LEGEND ROBERT REDFORD, DIRECTOR OF UPCOMING FILM “THE CONSPIRATOR,” TO THROW CEREMONIAL FIRST PITCH”

  1. JohnnyA says:

    GO CUBS! Big Redford fan, can’t wait to see movie. The trailer looks sweet.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon