Oscar winner Tom Hanks will play President Abraham Lincoln in Starburns Industries’ upcoming film adaptation of “Lincoln in the Bardo.”
In addition to starring as the 16th president of the United States, Hanks will produce the project, based on the best-selling novel by George Saunders, through his Playtone label with partner Gary Goetzman. Sanders is adapting the novel into a film with Oscar-nominated director Duke Johnson (Anomalisa) set to direct and produce.
This is not the first time Hanks has portrayed a real-life person, with his filmography ranging from astronaut Jim Lovell (Apollo 13) to hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger (Sully) to Washington Post editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee (The Post), Fred Rogers (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) and Walt Disney (Saving Mr. Banks), but this will be the first time the actor has played a U.S. president. (Note: Hanks narrated and hosted the 2013 docudrama The Killing of Lincoln, and the two are distant relatives of Lincoln on his mother’s side.)
While the life and 1865 assassination of President Lincoln, who led the nation through the Civil War and abolished slavery, are often covered in movies and other media, such as in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, for which Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for Best Actor, Lincoln in the Bardo centers on Lincoln’s relationship with his recently deceased 11-year-old son. To capture one of the most intimate aspects of the politician’s life, the film will blend stop-motion animation and live-action to explore “themes of love, empathy, and human capacity in the face of unimaginable grief” through an ensemble of characters “both living and dead, historical and invented.”
Johnson, Paul Young and Devon Young Rabinowitz are producers at Starburns Industries, and the project will be the first to go into production since the studio announced its film funding. Steven Sharesian, Aaron Mitchell and Saunders will serve as executive producers. Production will take place in London.
Hanks is repped by CAA and Greenberg Glusker. Deadline first reported his involvement in the project.
