The Jewish Dream Team Behind New Abe Lincoln Flick
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
If they could get Natalie Portman involved, it truly would be a Jewish dream team behind “Team of Rivals,” an upcoming Hollywood drama about the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.
Instead, they’ll have to make do with “just” the directing talents of Steven Spielberg and the writing gifts of Tony Kushner, who are collaborating for a second time to adapt Doris Kearns Goodwin’s best-selling 2005 book of the same name. The film will star Daniel Day-Lewis as Lincoln and Sally Field as his wife.
The movie marks a reunion for Spielberg and Kushner, who worked together on 2005’s “Munich.” Both received Oscar nominations for their work — Kushner shared his with co-writer Eric Roth — but also generated controversy with the film’s depiction of Israeli counterterrorism efforts in the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.
The new project is also part of what might be called a comeback for Spielberg, who hasn’t helmed a film since 2008. He has returned to the director’s chair for two movies set for release later this year.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
