Ok, so
Steven Spielberg is totally no longer screwing around with his forever in the making
Lincoln biopic at DreamWorks. For years the re-telling of the life of America's 16th President that he claimed to want to make but in reality seemed too scared to and he strung along poor
Liam Neeson in the process with his frequent dilly-dallying, surprisingly got serious in November with the casting of
Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role. Neeson, who had dedicated at least five years of his life on researching Lincoln had dropped his attachment from the project six months earlier and had seemingly never got a call back from Spielberg when he finally manned up to make the movie. So Day-Lewis we got (frankly, a much better suited Great Abe) and his casting was followed up last month with
confirmation that Sally Field would play his wife Mary Todd Lincoln, an actress who had been attached to the project for years herself. Now
THR reports that Spielberg has quietly rounded up the rest of his cast and it's a plethora of exciting names including
Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill and
Joseph Cross, all of whom are in negotiations to join the epic. Also in talks for the picture are
- David Costabile, Byron Jennings, Dakin Matthews, Boris McGiver, Gloria Reuben, Jeremy Strong and
David Warshofsky. Based on
Tony Kushners (Munich) adaptation of the best-selling book Team of Rivals by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
Doris Kearns Goodwin the plot will focus on the political collision of Lincoln and the powerful men of his cabinet on the road to abolition and the end of the Civil War. Jones would play Republican
Thaddeus Stevens, 'a Republican leader and congressman from Pennsylvania and supporter of abolishing slavery and was critical to writing the legislation that funded the American Civil War.'
Gordon-Levitt will be
Robert Todd, the only son of Lincoln to live beyond his teenage years and who looks more physically similar to
James McAvoy, but he's recently just done the Lincoln assassination movie The Conspirator, so he probably wasn't thought of;
The proposed supporting roles for the rest of the actor's mentioned hasn't been revealed just yet. Shooting is set to begin in Virginia for a release in the fall of 2012. Ironically, Spielberg's now found himself a rival for a cinematic portrayal of 19th century American black slavery as Tarantino is similarly now casting
Django Unchained, though neither movie will be anything like each other. Tarantino actually found himself in a similar position when his last film when Valkyrie attempted the Hitler assassination movie some months before his Inglourious Basterds. Tarantino's fictional film won the contest over Singer's historical movie based on fact so it'll be interesting to see if a similar outcome is to be determined here. Though you would be a brave man to bet against Lincoln being a high Oscar contender at the 2013 ceremony. Spielberg's got
War Horse and his
Tintin movie coming this year in the meantime - but neither of them are half as exciting as this Lincoln biopic proposes to be.