The following actors are in negotiations to join Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, in which Daniel Day-Lewis will play President Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field will play Mary Todd Lincoln: Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill, Joseph Cross, David Costabile, Byron Jennings, Dakin Matthews, Boris McGiver, Gloria Reuben, Jeremy Strong, and David Warshofsky. Details on Jones and Gordon-Levitt’s roles are below. UPDATE: Lee Pace will play Fernando Wood, the NYC mayor who “supported the Confederate cause and even suggested that the city secede from the Union, if only to keep up their valuable cotton trade,” says ThePlaylist. They’ve got more on Pace.
The script, adapted by Tony Kushner from Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals, focuses on the clash between Lincoln and the men in his cabinet over abolition and the end of the Civil War. Spielberg is directing as well as producing, alongside Kathleen Kennedy. Filming is slated for this fall, with a late 2012 release through Disney Touchstone.
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.
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