Showing posts with label Lincoln Movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lincoln Movies. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Yet Another Lincoln Movie?

Owing to my hectic summer schedule, and not having been in the mood, I have yet to venture out to see "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," though I have finally obtained a copy of the book on which the R-rated thriller is based.  I imagine that I will be more anxious to see Steven Spielberg's long-awaited Lincoln biopic in December (a project that has taken about 15 years since he obtained the pre-publication movie rights to Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals").

Imagine my surprise today, though, when I came across this mention of yet another Lincoln-related movie.  According to movie-related chatter online, actress Diane Kruger, perhaps best known for her appearance in "National Treasure," has revealed that she will play Lincoln's step-mother in "Green Blade Rising," which will be produced by noted director Terrence Mallick.  Aside from the historically troubling statement that it will focus on Lincoln's Kentucky years -- and thus on a period before his biological mother Nancy died and his father remarried -- this seems like an interesting way to do a coming-of-age drama.  On the other hand, given the disappointing box office for "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," I find it amazing that someone is willing to invest in a Lincoln movie that would seem, on its face, to have even less general appeal.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Lincoln's Award-Winning Weekend

The year of Abraham Lincoln's bicentennial is at an end, but the former president's influence on popular culture remains. This weekend, as Mike over at The Abraham Lincoln Observer writes (I knew I should have burned the midnight oil to post this), a full CD recording of the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates, is nominated for a Grammy in the Best Spoken Word Album category. The 14-CD set, released by BBC audio, features David Strathairn (Oscar-nominated actor for Good Night and Good Luck) as Abraham Lincoln and Richard Dreyfuss (Oscar-winning actor for The Goodbye Girl) as Stephen Douglas. The other nominees include another president -- Jimmy Carter reading his book We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land -- a reading of The Maltese Falcon, two autobiographies by famous people -- Michael J. Fox (the sentimental choice) and Carrie Fisher, and Jonathan Winters.

Even if Lincoln comes up short at the Grammys on Sunday, he's already won this weekend. At a 2010 Sundance Film Festival ceremony Saturday, "Drunk History: Douglass and Lincoln," a six-minute live-action short film directed by Jeremy Konner, will receive the Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking. The movie, which follows the fractured narrative given by a drunk historian, features Will Ferrell as Abraham Lincoln and Don Cheadle as Frederick Douglass. I have been unable to find the complete film online (there are others in the "Drunk History" series on YouTube), but there is a clip here.