Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ adds Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon Levitt
DreamWorks Studios’ “Lincoln” is adding a ton of big names according to a new report from Deadline.
Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill and Joseph Cross are all in negotiations to join the cast under the direction of Steven Spielberg.
Deadline notes that “…Also in negotiations to join the film are David Costabile, Byron Jennings, Dakin Matthews, Boris McGiver, Gloria Reuben, Jeremy Strong, and David Warshofsky.”
Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field will headline the film as Abraham Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd.
Based on the best-selling book, Team of Rivals, by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, the screenplay has been written by the Pulitzer Prize winner, Tony Award winner, and Academy Award nominated writer Tony Kushner.
It will be produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Steven Spielberg.
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.
Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones will play Thaddeus Stevens, a Republican leader and powerful congressman from Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives. Stevens was a staunch supporter of abolishing slavery and was critical to writing the legislation that funded the American Civil War.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, known for his roles in “Inception,” “(500) Days of Summer,” and next year’s “The Dark Knight Rises,” will take on the role of Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of President Lincoln and the only one to live past his teenage years.
Filming is expected to begin in the fall of 2011 in Virginia for release in the fourth quarter of 2012 through Disney’s Touchstone distribution label.
