Tom Hanks Cast as Abraham Lincoln in "Lincoln in the Bardo" Movie Adaptation

Oscar-winner Tom Hanks has been tapped to play President Abraham Lincoln in the upcoming film adaptation of “Lincoln in the Bardo” from Starburns Industries.

In addition to starring as the 16th U.S. President, Hanks will also produce the project, based on George Saunders’ bestselling novel, via his Playtone label with partner Gary Goetzman.

Saunders is adapting the novel with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Duke Johnson (“Anomalisa”) set to direct and produce.

Hanks is no strange to portraying a real-life figure, with his filmography ranging from astronaut Jim Lovell (“Apollo 13”) to hero pilot Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger (“Sully”), as well as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee (“The Post”), Fred Rodgers (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”) and Walt Disney (“Saving Mr. Banks”), but it is the actor’s first time portraying a U.S. President. (Note: Hanks narrated and hosted the 2013 docudrama,” Killing Lincoln,” and the two are distant relatives on Lincoln’s maternal side.)

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” 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 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.