How has this never happened before? Tom Hanks is finally going to play a U.S. President. Deadline reports Hanks will play Abraham Lincoln in Duke Johnson’s live-action/stop-motion animation hybrid movie Lincoln in the Bardo, based on George Saunders’ New York Times bestseller and 2017 Booker Prize winner.
Saunders is adapting the screenplay himself for Johnson, best known for co-directing Anomalisa with Charlie Kaufman. He most recently directed Andre Holland in The Actor, which opened to some acclaim last year.
Lincoln in the Bardo will use a combination of live-action and stop-motion animation to explore one of the most intense periods of Lincoln’s life, grieving over the death of his 11-year-old son. The story will unfold through an ensemble of characters, the living, the dead, the historical, and the fictional.
Hanks has played multiple figures throughout history, including Walt Disney, Sully Sullenberger, Congressman Charlie Wilson, and Mr. Rogers. He most recently appeared in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, and will reprise the voice of Woody in Toy Story 5.
