Almost a month ago, word arrived that Lawless**’ Jason Clarke had been cast to play Abraham Lincoln’s abusive father in The Green Blade Rises, about the 16th US President’s formative years. Now we also know who will be playing one of his first teachers – Wes Bentley – and his mother Nancy, who will be brought to the screen by Another Earth’s Brit Marling.
Rises, which is being directed by regular Terrence Malick collaborator A.J. Edwards (and produced by the Malick man himself), charts how Lincoln’s life was shaped by those who influenced him as he grew up.
Marling’s Nancy, for example, was a kind and loving mother who tried to protect her son as much as possible, but died when he was nine (not, as a certain other movie this year tried to indicate, from a vampire attack). When Lincoln’s pop remarried, he gained a stepmother, Sarah (Diane Kruger) who also tried to look out for him.
There’s no word yet on when Edwards – who edited three of Malick’s movies and has written the script for Rises – intends to kick off shooting.
Bentley, who was last seen as the ill-fated Seneca Crane in The Hunger Games, will next appear in Malick’s Knight Of Cups and biopic Lovelace. Marling last starred in Sound Of My Voice and will be seen in Arbitrage and The Company You Keep.