Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tommy Lee Jones join Spielberg’s Lincoln

 Movies often come in pairs. Armageddon/Deep Impact. Antz/A Bug’s Life. This year we’ll get the No Strings Attached clone Friends With Benefits, and soon we’ll have Snow White and The Huntsman and The Brothers Grimm: Snow White competing for our attention.

16^th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln can now join these esteemed ranks as the subject of two films set for release in 2012: Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and Timur Bekmembatov’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. OK, these two may actually be quite different.

A bunch of exciting actors have recently signed up to Spielberg’s project. Joining Daniel Day-Lewis as Honest Abe and Sally Field as his wife Mary Todd will be Joseph Gordon-Levitt (playing their eldest son Robert Todd Lincoln) and Tommy Lee Jones (as Republican leader Thaddeus Stevens).

According to Entertainment Weekly, James Spader, Hal Holbrook, John Hawkes, Tim Blake Nelson, Bruce McGill and Joseph Cross are all in talks for supporting roles.

Lincoln begins film in Virginia later this year for a Christmas 2012 release. Just in time for Oscar season!

Discuss: Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves, but surely Lincoln is the frontrunner for the 2013 Best Picture prize at this point?