The list of actors who’ve portrayed the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, is littered with major talents. Henry Fonda, Hal Holbrook, Gregory Peck, Kris Kristofferson, Daniel Day-Lewis, and, most recently, Manhunt‘s Hamish Linklater are just a few of the man who’ve grown out the ol’ Shenandoah to portray the man who abolished slavery and led America through its Civil War over the years. Now, as Deadline reports, Tom Hanks is set to join that esteemed company with a starring role as Abe in Lincoln In The Bardo, Anomalisa co-director Duke Johnson’s upcoming adaptation of George Saunders’ Booker Prize winning novel.
Adapted for screen by Saunders himself, Johnson’s Lincoln In The Bardo is intriguingly positioned as a live-action/stop-motion hybrid take on the source material — which is kind of apt given the book’s content. For those unfamiliar with Saunders’ NYT bestseller, the book is set during the Civil War — specifically, February 1862. It follows Abraham Lincoln during and in the aftermath of the death of his son William Lincoln, who died of typhoid aged just 11, and finds the sitting President and grieving father entering the bardo — a Buddhist-conceived liminal space between life and rebirth — one night as he interacts with the living and the dead while processing his pain. Per a description given by Deadline, the movie “will explore themes of love, empathy and human capacity in the face of grief as the story unfolds through an ensemble of characters, both living and dead, historical and invented.” André Holland is set to co-star, though his role is as yet unknown.
Hanks — a distant, distant cousin of Lincoln — has considerable form playing historical figures, having previously portrayed the likes of Chesley Sullenberger in Sully, Walt Disney in Saving Mr. Banks, and Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood. We’ll see how his Abe fares when Lincoln In The Bardo, set to enter production in London soon, spirits its way onto our screens.
