Posted on 11/19/2010 4:16:18 PM PST by My Favorite Headache
DreamWorks Studios just announced that Daniel Day-Lewis will take on the role of President Abraham Lincoln in the long-in-development biopic to be directed by Steven Spielberg.
Lincoln, which playwright Tony Kushner has adapted from the Doris Kearns Goodwin book Team of Rivals, has been on Spielberg's docket for years, with Liam Neeson once attached to star as the 16th president. Kushner also co-wrote Spielberg's Munich, which earned him an Academy Award nomination.
Kathleen Kennedy and Spielberg are producing the project, which the director will begin filming next fall.
“Daniel Day-Lewis would have always been counted as one of the greatest of actors, were he from the silent era, the golden age of film or even some time in cinema's distant future," said Spielberg. "I am grateful and inspired that our paths will finally cross with Lincoln."
DreamWorks expects to have the film in theaters late in 2012 through Disney's Touchstone label.
Day-Lewis most recently starred in the musical Nine and Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 drama There Will Be Blood, for which he won an Oscar for best actor. Though Day-Lewis is British, it's notable that Raymond Massey, who was Canadian, won the best actor award in 1940 for portraying the famous president in Abe Lincoln in Illinois.
"Throughout his career, [Daniel] has been exceptionally selective in his choice of material," said DreamWorks co-chairman and CEO Stacey Snider, "which makes us feel even more fortunate that he has chosen to join with us for Lincoln."
Spielberg has often delved into American history, in films such as Amistad, Catch Me If You Can and Saving Private Ryan. Lincoln will focus on the political collision of Lincoln and his cabinet over abolition and the end of the Civil War.
The director is currently filming War Horse, which Touchstone will release Dec. 28, 2011, and he is set to start filming Robopocalypse in January 2012 for a 2013 release. So the Lincoln shoot will take place in between. Spielberg also directed The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, which Paramount and Sony will distribute Dec. 23, 2011.
Yes, well -- sic semper tyrannus.
“They lose me right after the theater scene.”
Of course, this being Spielberg, the real brains of the outfit will be the Lincoln children, who live in a horribly dysfunctional home. Lincoln himself will be portrayed as a villain, an uncaring father incapable of feeling anything for his children or his wife, and a lout that no one likes or respects.
Lincoln is an historically fascinating figure, politically astute. Wasn’t it Kearns Goodwin who made allegations Lincoln was gay?
In the new flick, John Wilkes Booth shoots Abe Lincoln and cries out “I drink your milkshake!”
I’ll be skipping this one thank you.
Spielberg’s Lincoln will be a homosexual who really wanted to free the slaves in 1861 and start the NAALCP but was prevented from doing so by lies that led us into war by George W. Bush’s great grandfather.
He also will have found to have had a sexual relationship with a black male butler who really wrote the Gettysburg Address which was actually delivered by someone else.
Can’t wait to see it.
This is going to be great. I can’t wait to see how Lincoln and ET save the Jews and Indiana Jones in space!
I want a sweeping biopic of George Washington, a 3-part series: His early years up to the French and Indian War; Washington throughout the Revolutionary War; and Washington as President until his death. If Hollywood could produce this - I don’t care if it is 3D or CGI - it would be the highest grossing trilogy in movie history.
It was made for TV I think in the 80s with Barry Bostwick playing GW.
No, that was someone else. Goodwin in fact has refuted such claims, saying that what was "normal" behavior in the 19th century, might be misconstrued as homosexual behavior today - like sharing a bed with another man whilst staying in a hotel.
Tony Kushner, however, is about as far to the left as you can get, without having a statue of Mao in his front yard. And, he's as queer as a three-dollar bill. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the homosexual meme pushed, if only subtly.
I’ve read Team of Rivals. Enjoyed it. Learned a great deal. If there was anything in it about Lincoln being homosexual, I missed it.
Ha! Sort of. The last time he was actually views was some 36 years after his death. His remains were moved around some 12 or 13 times after his original burial.
I don’t know about gay, bu the Spielberg Lincoln most definitely will be a Democrat and the Southern slave owners will be Republicans.
P.S. Ace the earrings Daniel!
There have been very few Colonial period pieces made in the last 25-years. Amistad (coincidentally also by Spieldburg, I think) comes to mind immediately, but nothing really directly about the FFs as a feature fil. Of course, you did have the disappointing HBO miniseries based on McCullough's bio of Adams.
It (the Revolution) is such rich high-drama material, I don't know why it's not mined more frequently for screenplays, but it isn't.
I nearly spit my adult beverage all over the monitor you dirty dog!
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