Oddly, in an article over at Newsweek, in a story about a new exhibit featuring Abraham Lincoln’s wife Mary Todd Lincoln we get a little bit of news in regards to the biopic Steven Spielberg is working on. The pic is based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” with Liam Neeson as Abraham and Sally Field as Mary Todd.
Field’s involvement was not known until now and to let Newsweek give the description of the first lady, she was involuntarily committed to an insane asylum in her later years after three of her four kids didn’t live to adulthood, and her husband was shot as he held her hand. As the article says, “If anyone ever deserved to go crazy, it was Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the 16th U.S. president.”
Spielberg’s film has been discussed for several years as Neeson’s involvement was announced back in January 2005. As for the role of Mary Todd, there had been rumors that Marcia Gay Harden would play the part.
Lincoln is still in pre-production and there is no official word on a start date or when DreamWorks is eyeing a release. IMDb credits Tony Kushner, John Logan and Paul Webb as part of the writing team that adapted Goodwin’s book.
