Variety is reporting that Steven Spielberg has cast Jared Harris (Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows) to play Ulysses S. Grant in his upcoming historical biopic, Lincoln, based on the novel Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, with Daniel Day Lewis (There Will Be Blood) playing Abraham Lincoln.
From the report:
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. Grant, who later became the 18th president, was the most successful Union general, starting with victories at Shiloh and Vicksburg.
In addition to Day Lewis and Harris, the film also stars Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Inception), Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive), John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone), Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild), James Spader (“Boston Legal”), Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Bruce McGill (Collateral), Joseph Cross (Milk), David Strathairn (Good Night and Good Luck), Walton Goggins (“The Shield”), Lee Pace (The Fall), Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen) and David Oyelowo (Rise of the Planet of the Apes).
Harris, who landed the coveted role as Professor Moriarty in Guy Ritchie’s upcoming Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, is just the latest highly regarded actor to join the project. With this bevy of highly-acclaimed actors, Lincoln is setting up to be a serious Oscar-contender when Dreamworks decides to release the film. Filming is expected to commence shortly.
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