It’s been a pretty good day for stars of “The Shield.” Michael Chiklis just nabbed the villain role in “Parker” and now his co-star Walton Goggins is joining the biggest Oscar bait picture of 2012.
Goggins — currently best known for his role on “Justified” and with parts in the upcoming “Cowboys & Aliens” and “Straw Dogs” — has come aboard Steven Spielberg‘s “Lincoln.” 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.” And Spielberg already has a brilliant cast to weave the story with Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, John Hawkes, Hal Holbrook, James Spader, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill, Joseph Cross and David Straithairn all set to star.
Just to recap: DDL and Field are set to play Abraham and Mary Todd, with Jones portraying Republican Thaddeus Stevens who supported the abolition 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 and Straithairn, plays William Seward, the president’s loyal Secretary of State and fierce abolitionist who served under Lincoln during the Civil War. Goggins will play another Lincoln ally, Democratic Ohio Congressman Wells A. Hutchins, who goes against the party line and votes to abolish slavery.
Shooting will begin this fall in Virginia with a fall 2012 release date in the works. [Deadline]
