Sometimes casting news comes from the strangest places. In an article primarily covering the opening of a new exhibit about Mary Todd Lincoln at the Lincoln Presidential Library, Newsweek reported that Sally Field would play the President’s wife in the Steven Spielberg movie about Lincoln being planned for 2009. This was news to, well, everyone. Marcia Gay Harden was being rumored as the likely choice opposite Liam Neeson as the Man in the Tall Hat. Field hadn’t really been on anyone’s radar until Newsweek stated it as though it was a done deal.
Spielberg’s movie, based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” has been seen as his likely follow-up to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which you may have heard of. There hasn’t been any confirmation that Field will take on the key role of Lincoln’s allegedly nutso wife, but she seems like a better than average choice. Since Forrest Gump in 1994, she’s had small roles and a failed television series, but seems to have hit her stride with her recent Emmy win in Brothers and Sisters on ABC.
