Military movie for Redford

Robert Redford plays a three-star general

The Sopranos star James Gandolfini is to appear alongside Robert Redford in a new military drama currently being filmed by director Rod Lurie.

Redford stars as the three-star General Irwin, who has been court-martialed and sentenced to a maximum security military prison run with an iron fist by Colonel Winter - played by Gandolfini.

Colonel Winter's respect for the once-legendary general fades as Irwin confronts the warden about his methods, and their confrontation escalates into war when the general organizes the inmates into an army to take over the prison.

James Gandolfini: known for the TV series The Sopranos

Director Rod Lurie, who wrote and directed the recent political thriller The Contender, served as a combat arms officer in the US Army for four years after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1984.

Lurie entered the film world as an entertainment reporter and film critic, winning the Prix Du Jury for his short film 4 Second Delay at the 1998 Festival of American Cinema and making his first feature film, Deterrence, in 1999.

"Artist-friendly"

Filming of the new movie got under way last week at the old Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville, which was built in 1898 and shut down in 1992.

As with The Contender, the film is being produced by Dreamworks, the company set up by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1984 as an "artist-friendly" film studio.