Robert Redford has already attracted a sizeable and solid cast for his new drama The Company You Keep, but the fine thespian choices just keep on coming, with Stanley Tucci and Chris Cooper both signing on.

Company, which Redford is both directing and starring in, finds the veteran actor as a former member of radical US group the Weather Underground Organisation, which orchestrated a campaign of protest bombings and other terrorist acts in the 1970s.

These days, he tries to remain strictly on the down low, but his cover is blown by an ambitious young reporter (Shia LaBeouf), who is investigating both his past and his possible involvement in a botched robbery.

Tucci’s on to play LaBeouf’s boss, the editor of his paper, while Cooper will be Redford’s brother, who ends up helping to protect his niece when her father has to flee from the FBI.

Julie Christie, Susan Sarandon, Stephen Root, Richard Jenkins and Brit Marling are all also in the movie, which will be shot using The Limey writer Lem Dobbs' adaptation of Neil Gordon’s novel.

Redford starts cranking the cameras and pulling on his best running shoes this week.