Going to regret that pun in the morning.

A Democratic Congressman has been added to the cast of Lincoln, as TV and film star Walton Goggins has been cast as Wells A. Hutchins, who went against his party to vote in favor of abolition during Lincoln’s presidency. Goggins has shifted successfully back and forth between the big and small screens on shows like The Shield and Justified along with upcoming films like Cowboys & Aliens and Straw Dogs. He joins other supporting players like David Strathairn and Sally Field.

It’s good to hear more Lincoln news. If you ignore Crystal Skulls (and in some way or another, most of us do), we’ve been waiting for A-game Spielberg to return after the brilliant Munich for a lot of years now. With Lincoln set to begin and release next year after so much back-and-forth, Tintin finally hitting after a long development cycle, and War Horse slamming into prestige season after the Beard’s seemingly sudden decision to make it his next project, Spielberg will finally be plunging the pin into a balloon of projects that has been swelling for some time. I think most would agree that Lincoln is the most exciting of that bunch.

Late last year Spielberg finally put an end to years of hoping and moaning by announcing that Lincoln would begin in late 2011, along with news that Liam Neeson would not be taking on the role he had so long been associated with. Rough as that news might have been, the addition of Daniel Day Lewis eased it considerably. Since then the aforementioned Strathairn and Fields have joined the cast as Lincoln’s Secretary of State and wife respectively (it would be some serious revisionist history to swap them). Now there’s Goggins, and likely many more as Tintin and War Horse wrap-up and leave Spielberg time to get the biopic in gear.

If you’re growing too impatient for this project to begin, remember that it is based on the novel Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Lincoln. Pick that up if you can’t wait.

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