— Ch. 1 · The January Thaw —
Lincoln (film).
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
In the freezing air of January 1865, President Abraham Lincoln stands in a dimly lit room within the White House. He stares at a map of Virginia while his wife Mary Todd Lincoln paces nearby with visible anxiety. The war is nearing its end, yet Lincoln fears the courts will discard his Emancipation Proclamation once fighting stops. He knows that without a constitutional amendment, freed slaves could be re-enslaved by returning southern states. His political opponents include Radical Republicans who fear the amendment might fail if they wait for new elections. Some advisors suggest waiting until after the spring thaw when military operations resume and peace negotiations begin. Lincoln authorizes Francis Preston Blair to engage Confederate leaders in secret talks despite knowing this angers his allies. The President must balance these dangerous diplomatic efforts against the urgent need to pass the Thirteenth Amendment before Congress votes.
Script Evolution And Rights
DreamWorks Pictures finalized film rights to Team of Rivals in 2001 after Spielberg heard Doris Kearns Goodwin discuss her biography project. John Logan wrote an initial draft focusing on Lincoln's friendship with Frederick Douglass during that early development phase. Playwright Paul Webb later rewrote the script before filming was scheduled to start in January 2006. Spielberg delayed production due to dissatisfaction with Webb's version which covered the entire presidential term rather than specific months. Tony Kushner replaced Webb as screenwriter and found the assignment daunting because he did not understand what made Lincoln great. Kushner noted Lincoln rarely quoted the New Testament even though he was Christian. By late 2008, Kushner joked about writing his 967,000th book about Abraham Lincoln while working on the screenplay. His first draft spanned four months but was rewritten by February 2009 to focus on just two months of political maneuvering. Spielberg arranged a fifty million dollar budget to placate Paramount Pictures who had previously delayed the project over concerns it resembled Amistad. DreamWorks eventually dropped out and Disney acquired distribution rights while Fox agreed to co-finance half the film alongside Participant Media.