National Geographic embraces Bill O'Reilly history book

National Geographic Channel’s new film Killing Lincoln explores a key part of the 16th president’s story that Steven Spielberg’s big screen hit largely passed over.

Based on Fox News host Bill O’Reilly’s bestselling book, Killing Lincoln chronicles the final days of President Lincoln (Billy Campbell) and the plot by his assassin John Wilkes Booth (Jesse Johnson). Below is the first trailer for the movie, which debuts next month.

Killing Lincoln spends time portraying both men as it builds toward, as narrator Tom Hanks puts it, “the most resonant crime in the history of the nation,” and then chronicles the extensive manhunt to bring Booth to justice. The show’s auspices are quite impressive. In addition to Hanks, Killing Lincoln is produced by Ridley and Tony Scott (the latter having joined the production before his death last year) and is directed by Adrian Moat (Gettysburg). “This is really the Lincoln story you’ve never seen before,” Ridley Scott says.