Tom Hanks set to portray Abraham Lincoln?

The Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks is set to portray the former President Abraham Lincoln in the upcoming film adaptation of Lincoln in the Bardo from Starburns Industries.

Tom Hanks to play Abraham Lincoln in film adaptation of Lincoln in the Bardo

The actor will also produce the project, based on George Saunders’ bestselling novel, through his Playtone label with partner Gary Goetzman. George Saunders is adapting the novel with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Duke Johnson set to direct and produce.

This is far from Hanks’ first time portraying a real-life figure, with his filmography ranging from astronaut Jim Lovell to hero pilot Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, as well as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, Fred Rodgers and Walt Disney, but it is the actor’s first time portraying a US President.

While President Lincoln’s life, leading the country through the Civil War and abolishing slavery, as in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, for which Daniel Day Lewis won the best actor Oscar, and his 1865 assassination are more often explored in cinema and other forms of media.

Lincoln in the Bardo centres on Abraham 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 production will blend stop-motion animation and live-action to explore “themes of love, empathy and human capacity in the face of unimaginable grief” via an ensemble of characters, “both living and dead, historical and invented”.

Johnson, Paul Young and Devon Young Rabinowitz are producing for Starburns Industries, with the project as the first to go into production since the studio announced its film fund. Steven Shareshian, Aaron Mitchell and Saunders will serve as executive producers. Production will take place in London.

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