Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes & More Go For Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln'

by Kevin Jagernauth
May 5, 2011 10:54 AM
12 Comments

Hal Holbrook, James Spader, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill & Joseph Cross All Circling

Holy shit. Daniel Day Lewis and Sally Field were announced in tiny little drips of information, but the faucet on Steven Spielberg's dream project "Lincoln" is on full blast with a massive cast angling for parts.

THR reports that (take a deep breath) Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill and Joseph Cross are in negotiations for the upcoming film. Based on the best-selling book, “Team of Rivals,” by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and featuring a script by Tony Kushner (”Angels In America”), the film 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 will play Republican Thaddeus Stevens who supported the abolishment of slavery and wrote legislation that helped fund the Civil War. Gordon-Levitt will be Lincoln's son, Robert Todd, the only one to survive past his teenage years. Or put it another way: Daniel Day-Lewis is gonna be JGL's Dad. Amazing. No word yet on the roles for the rest, but they will be slotted into supporting roles.

Lensing is set to begin this fall in Virginia with an Oscar-season 2012 release in the works. So, with Quentin Tarantino gearing up "Django Unchained" and Spielberg finally getting "Lincoln" rolling it looks like we're gonna have two high-profile slavery films taking very, very, very different approaches. But if you want Oscar-glory Spielberg sooner, your wait won't be long. He's got "War Horse" coming on December 28th.

More: Films, Actors, Lincoln, Tim Blake Nelson, Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader

12 Comments

| Reply
Papushi | May 6, 2011 7:34 AMReply

There's also Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Lindsey Strauss | May 6, 2011 7:14 AMReply

Random Batman connection - Old Two Face and John Blake together on screen.
Prax | May 6, 2011 3:52 AMReply

Billyboy, you will eat those words and then you'll call yourself an ungrateful bitch.
Liana | May 6, 2011 2:28 AMReply

Someone's got a hard on.
BuntyHoven | May 6, 2011 2:27 AMReply

Don't forget this is going to feature a meaty part by the name of of Frederick Douglass... wonder who Spielberg has in mind for that.
Karen | November 9, 2012 12:13 PM

Everything I have read about this film says the character of Frederick Douglass does not appear in this film! Shame on Speilberg!
Sean | May 6, 2011 1:42 AMReply

If Spielberg can bring what he did to Munich, to this, i'm sure it will be great.
And Hawkes as John Wilkes Booth is the best fuckin casting idea i have heard of all year.
Ray Ha | May 5, 2011 12:27 PMReply

Hawkes would make a good John Wilkes Booth
Billyboy | May 5, 2011 12:24 PMReply

Great cast! Too bad is a Spielberg movie.
Kevin Klawitter | May 5, 2011 11:42 AMReply

Day-Lewis, Gordon-Leavitt, Jones, Hawkes, Nelson...

I think my head may explode from the sheer "Holy crap that's awesome" factor.
Sean | May 5, 2011 11:32 AMReply

DDL as Lincoln? JGL as his son? And Hawkes is in the mix ? Well my ticket + DVD has been claimed.
Ken | May 5, 2011 11:14 AMReply

I hope the fellow actors look forward to referring to DDL as Abraham for the entirety of the shoot. I'd actually would like to be present for that. It'd be the closest thing to actually meeting Abraham Lincoln.