Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tommy Lee Jones will be stepping into the wayback machine to co-star in Steven Spielberg’s long-in-the-works “Lincoln,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Multiple Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis (“There Will Be Blood”) is already attached to play the bearded one in the Civil War-era Abraham Lincoln biopic, with Oscar-winner Sally Field (“Norma Rae”) co-starring as his wife, Mary Todd.
Hal Holbrook, James Spader, John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill and Joseph Cross are also in talks to join the cast.
“Lincoln” was adapted by Tony Kushner (“Munich”) from the book “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Jones will take on the role of Pennsylvania congressman Thaddeus Stevens, a Republican ally of Lincoln’s and an abolitionist who was largely responsible for drafting the legislation that funded the Civil War.
Gordon-Levitt will play Lincoln’s oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln.
“Lincoln” is planning to shoot this fall in Virginia, and is tentatively scheduled for a late 2012 release.
Gordon-Levitt co-starred in last year’s blockbuster “Inception” for director Christopher Nolan, and the two will reunite next year for “The Dark Knight Rises,” the this film in Nolan’s Batman series.
Jones will soon appear in Marvel’s “Captain American” alongside Chris Evans. He’s currently in production on “Men in Black III,” with co-star Will Smith.
Spielberg last directed “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and is currently in post-production on the 3D motion-capture film “Adventures of Tin Tin: Secret of the Unicorn” with producer Peter Jackson (“Lord of the Rings”). Spielberg also produced this summer’s upcoming “Cowboys and Aliens” and executive produced “Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon.”