Lions for Lambs, due for release on November 9th and the first film Robert Redford has directed since The Legend of Bagger Vance, seems likely to inspire both admiration and controversy. It will have its North American premiere as the opening night selection for AFI Fest, which runs November 1st through 11th and is presented by the American Film Institute.

One of the main three plot threads – a Republican senator (Tom Cruise) tries to sell a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan to a skeptical journalist (Meryl Streep) – has elements of the Judith Miller WMD episode (minus the skeptical part). The other two stories concern two idealistic young soldiers and their former college professor (Redford). In an interview with the New York Times, screenwriter Matthew Canahan (The Kingdom, also due out soon) spoke about what inspired him – the realization that he was "the same hypocrite that I so can't stand in our country, the kind of people that will flip right past the news to get to 'Access Hollywood.'"

Conservative bloggers are already weighing in (based on the trailer?); one called the film an "anti-McCain campaign ad."