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Etsy Finds: Honest Abe

CasaSugar — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:00:43 PST

While President's Day is Monday, Abraham Lincoln's birthday is actually on Friday, Feb. 12. What better way to celebrate the 16th president's day of birth than by rounding up some cool art and home finds that celebrate some aspect of the tall, lanky, bearded man's legacy? Check out the slideshow for some unexpected Abe Lincoln finds.

James McAvoy May Star in Redford's Lincoln Movie

BuzzSugar — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:30:58 PDT

Can there ever be too much James McAvoy news in one day? I think not. Especially when one news item pairs the adorable actor up with Seth Rogen and another item has him possibly acting in a movie directed by Robert Redford. Titled The Conspirator, Redford's film is described as an indie historical drama about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Interestingly, though, the project will be focused on a woman: Mary Surratt, the alleged conspirator of assassin John Wilkes Booth. Here's more on the woman's story:

Surratt's is a compelling story. A Washington D.C. boardinghouse owner who sympathized with the Confederates, she was allegedly part of the plot to kill Lincoln, supplying Wilkes Booth and his accomplice David Herold weapons at her tavern after the assassin had shot the president at Ford's Theater.

Surratt's son John was also alleged to be part of the conspiracy. Mary Surratt was eventually convicted and hanged for conspiring to kill the president; her son went on the lam and eventually was put on trial but was never convicted, living until 1916.

The pic will also center on a young Union hero named Frederick Aiken who was appointed to defend Mary Surratt, and who comes to believe that the widow is innocent.

McAvoy is reportedly at the top of a list of potential actors for one of the lead roles, though no news yet on who will play the conspiratorial leading lady. I have loved seeing McAvoy in period pieces (Atonement and Becoming Jane, particularly) so this should be good. Now we just need to know who will take the main female role - any suggestions on who should play Mary Surratt?

Quiz Nation: Abraham Lincoln Turns 200!

CitizenSugar — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:30:40 PST

When I was a kid my grandpa used to boast: "I shook the hand, that shook the hand of Abraham Lincoln." Only one handshake removed, my grandfather was born one hundred years after the 16th President - who was born exactly 200 years ago today!

Two centuries after his birth, Lincoln's legacy lives in a bright light. Lincoln may have been the Republican Party's first president, but he is quite admired by today's Democratic president. Barack Obama used Lincoln's team of rivals as inspiration for his cabinet, and became the second president to use Lincoln's bible at his inauguration. (Lincoln himself was the first.)

You may have figured out that Lincoln shares his birth date, Feb. 12, 1809, with Charles Darwin. Take this quiz to find out what else you know about Honest Abe.

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O Captain! My Captain! Obama Honors Lincoln at Ford Theater

CitizenSugar — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:30:45 PST

The president honored his favorite predecessor last night at the reopening of Ford's Theater, the site of Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865. "Harrowing," Obama called the occasion, if you're looking for the word.

Timed to coordinate with the great emancipator's 200th birthday today, the 18-month, $25-million renovation features a revamped stage, new seats, and a spacious, updated lobby. Who said taxpayers weren't bailing out the arts? Anyway! A video presentation of the Gettysburg Address was read by the four former living presidents, and the president and first lady were presented with their very own, very large copy.

While Obama traveled to Springfield, IL, today to formerly commemorate the 16th president's bicentennial, he honored him last night with these words:

Despite all that divided us - North and South, black and white - he had an unyielding belief that we were, at heart, one nation, and one people. And because of Abraham Lincoln, and all who’ve carried on his work in the generations since, that is what we remain today.

View 4 Photos ›

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Separated at Birth: Three Lincoln-Related Projects

BuzzSugar — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:37:52 PDT

Apparently, this is the year for Abraham Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth. Much of Hollywood seems to be fascinated with the legendary president and his assassin right now, with a biopic and a HBO miniseries already in the works. Now, there's a Showtime series in development that would focus on Booth and his brothers - a dysfunctional family drama of sorts that I'm guessing ends with a president shot dead.

I'm having trouble keeping these various projects straight in my mind. Should I care most about Lincoln himself, how his assassin got caught, or how his killer came to be a presidential shooter in the first place? Here's a handy chart to help you decide:


Name	The Booths	Team of Rivals	Manhunt
Medium	TV (Showtime)	Film	TV (HBO)
Stars	To be determined	Liam Neeson (Lincoln), Sally Field (Mary Todd Lincoln)	To be determined
Focus	John Wilkes Booth and his two dysfunctional brothers	Lincoln himself	"Lesser-known players" in the hunt for Lincoln's killer
Hollywood "Big Name"	Executive Producer Kevin Bacon	Director Steven Spielberg	Writers David Simon and Tom Fontana
Book Inspiration	None	Team of Rivals	Manhunt
Presumed Outcome	Lincoln dies	Lincoln dies	Lincoln dies

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HBO Developing Miniseries About Lincoln's Killing

BuzzSugar — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:32:20 PDT

From the network that brought you John Adams - and the writers who brought you urban strife - comes this: HBO is developing a miniseries about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the hunt for his killer, to be written by David Simon of The Wire and Tom Fontana of Oz.

The miniseries is based on the best-selling book Manhunt, about the Lincoln shooting and the 12-day hunt for his assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Simon and Fontana are writing the script together.

Fontana is reportedly something of a Lincoln assassination buff, with "hundreds of books" about the shooting. Simon, too, is fascinated with the shooting. According to Broadcasting & Cable, they intend to explore it through the eyes of lesser-known players. The book was originally optioned for an action movie starring Harrison Ford, but the option expired and HBO snapped up the rights. Don't expect this miniseries to have the same tone a big-screen adaptation would have: "I don't do action," Simon told B&C.

Have any of you history/Lincoln buffs read this book? Do you think it's a story made for an HBO miniseries?

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Lincoln and Darwin: More Alike Than You'd Might Think

CitizenSugar — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:00:55 PDT

Newsweek's cover story pits two men against each other that I have to confess, I'd never really considered in the same breath: Lincoln and Darwin. As next year marks the 200th birthdays (both were born on February 12, 1809) of both men whose independent ideas have have formed our modern world, Newsweek asks the tricky question, who was more important: Lincoln or Darwin? Are we more influenced by the man who preserved the concept of republican democracy or the man who brought forth the idea of evolution? The ideas they pioneered were as disparate as the men are surprisingly similar.

Here's how: Both men lost their mothers in early childhood, both suffered depression and both struggled with religious questions. The two also had poor relations with their fathers and each lost a child in early childbirth. Lincoln and Darwin both share "late bloomers" disease: Neither found real success until their middle years - Darwin published The Origin of the Species at 50 and Lincoln was elected President one year later. To see the most surprising and possibly inspiring shared trait,

Perhaps the most amazing of their shared commonalities is the fact that neither man showed any real promise early in their careers. Darwin began as an amateur naturalist who collected bugs and rocks and only flirted with the idea of biological science without any driving force or cogent overall theory. It wasn't until his trip on the Beagle a trip he took almost as a lark (or, finch? Heh.) It was on the trip, kind of a rich young man’s idea of seeing the world (would Darwin have been on The Hills?) that he began to formulate his concept of evolution and natural selection. The sneaky man kept his idea a secret for two decades without working in graduate school, government funding or even so much as asking other scientific minds their opinions.

Lincoln too worked slowly and steadily towards mastering anything he found interesting. Preferring to be self-taught, Lincoln rarely remained in school for more than three months at any given time. Despite his correspondence-course way of book learnin' he mastered Trigonometry by working as a surveyor and memorized Shakespeare and Blackstone. When Lincoln found himself in the beginning throes of the civil war, he quickly found himself in command of all Northern forces until he could rely on Grant years into the conflict.

The similarities don't end there. The Newsweek piece delves into how both men forged new worlds with their words - including the famed Gettysburg address - in the first 29 words of which, Lincoln defined the reason for the civil war; a stunning literary achievement by any rhetorical measure. After that he expresses, with incredible clarity and distinction the longing for all American’s to be free and to be united, in peace. The article is well worth a read, even if you've never found yourself musing about the beak size of Galapagos Finch or considered reuniting a country split by war. Eh, baby steps. The guys didn't get on the ball 'till they were 50 anyway.

Who do you think was more important?

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Sally Field, Liam Neeson Set for Spielberg-Helmed Lincoln Biopic

BuzzSugar — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:30:00 PDT

In a recent article, Newsweek randomly announced that Sally Field will play Mary Todd Lincoln and Liam Neeson will play Abraham Lincoln in a biopic directed by Steven Spielberg. The casting news was included in a piece about the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum’s special exhibit, “Mary Todd Lincoln: First Lady of Controversy,” which explores the possibility that Mary Todd Lincoln may have suffered from mental illness.

Newsweek states that Spielberg's project will be based on the Doris Kearns Goodwin book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Of course, production will have to wait until filming wraps on the fourth Indiana Jones movie, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Personally, I'm excited for this. I don't think Field has had a complex, meaty film role in many years, and I look forward to seeing her on the big screen again, even if she doesn't think she has time for anything but "Brothers & Sisters."

Field and Neeson photos source

Link Time - New Photos From Scream 4!

BuzzSugar — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:30:26 PST

Check out the latest pics from Scream 4 - EW.com
A field guide to TV's loser husbands and boyfriends - Flavorwire
Are there too many stupid characters on TV? - TV Squad
Is HBO making a male version of Sex and the City? - The Frisky
See the Javier Bardem/Josh Brolin kiss that the Oscars banned from TV - Moviefone
Elizabeth Hurley will play the villain on the new Wonder Woman TV show - /Film
Trent Reznor will kill Abe Lincoln's mom in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - Vulture
Zach Galifianakis and more join Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie - MTV Movies Blog
Decorating looks to steal from Beastly - CasaSugar

Honest Abe Is a Badass in the Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Trailer

Shannon Vestal — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:03:53 PST

If you thought that author Seth Grahame-Smith's genre mashup novels like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies would make for cheesy films, then you may be surprised by the electrifying Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter trailer. In the adaptation of Grahame-Smith's novel, our 16th president is re-imagined as a man with a passion for more than politics - he's a vampire-killing machine. This version of Lincoln (played by newcomer Benjamin Walker) has been motivated to kill the vampires who haunt America because his grandfather and mother were victims of the supernatural monsters. Politics comes into it when Lincoln learns that the slave trade is perpetuated by vampires, who are using the people for food, so Lincoln sets to end slavery and thus cut off the vampire food supply.

While I'm still pretty skeptical that this film could come out still feeling gimmicky, the trailer is actually pretty intense. Walker plays Lincoln like we've never seen him before: fierce, agile, and seemingly unstoppable. I'm far more curious about this movie now than I was before, so to see if you feel the same, watch the trailer after the jump.