He might have flung his name into the hat as a likely candidate to play Abraham Lincoln in the genre mash-up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but Josh Lucas has just scored a very different historical role, one that won’t see him tackling fanged fiends, but will see him appearing alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in J Edgar.
Clint Eastwood is behind the film, which Milk’s Dustin Lance Black has written. DiCaprio plays the infamous founder of the FBI, a man whose controversial private life and proclivities often overlapped with his professional career.
Lucas has won the role of Charles Lindbergh, the famed aviator of the era, who saw his child kidnapped, an event that sent shockwaves and generated headlines around the world. Bruno Hauptmann (to be played in the film by Damon Herriman) was found guilty of snatching the killing the baby, but his conviction was thrown into doubt amid claims of evidence tampering and witness intimidation by the police. Hoover sent the FBI to investigate the claims.
Also in the cast are Judi Dench (as Hoover’s mother), The Social Network’s Armie Hammer as Clyde Tolson, Hoover’s heir at the bureau (and, some claim, his lover), with Ed Westwick as Agent Smith, an FBI agent who is recruited to write Hoover’s biography but digs up a few details his boss doesn’t want released.
Eastwood is planning to start shooting next month, and given his usual pace, we’d expect this one in cinemas before the year is out.