Deadline says that The Shield and Predators actor Walton Goggins has landed a role in a huge upcoming film, Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln. According to them, he’ll be playing Wells A. Hutchins, the Ohio Congressman who voted for the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery; being a Democrat, this went against the general beliefs of his own party at the time. There isn’t a huge resemblance between the actor and the subject, but this is Spielberg directing, so I’m not terribly concerned about that.

He’s joining a very impressive (and large) cast, one made up of Daniel Day-Lewis as the sixteenth President, Sally Field as his wife, Mary Todd, David Strathairn as Secretary of State William Steward, Tommy Lee Jones, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and — to sum it up both quickly and simply — a lot of other good names. Written by Tony Kushner and based on the book Team of Rivals by Doris Kerns Goodwin, it will start shooting this fall in Virginia, and will see a release in late 2012. I don’t think I need to tell you this, but expect a lot of awards to roll in for the movie in the following months.

Meanwhile, Taylor Hackford‘s Parker has been speeding up the casting process over the past week or so, with us having recently learned that Clifton Collins Jr. and Wire actor Wendell Pierce had signed on, joining lead Jason Statham and the still-in-talks Jennifer Lopez. Now, Deadline is also reporting that Michael Chiklis, Goggins‘ co-star on The Shield, has been cast in the film as the villain.

Not much is mentioned in the article, but knowing that this is based on Donald E. Westlake‘s novel The Hunter – and the story of two of that novel’s film adaptations, those being Point Blank and Payback – you also know that he and the lover of Statham‘s character will very likely end up betraying the British action star. Chiklis makes sense for this casting, and that’s because he can play an “intense” character so well. That’s why I see it as a good addition, and I personally think that it only makes this movie look more appealing than before. Written by John L. McLaughlin, the movie will begin filming in New Orleans next month.

What are your thoughts on these cast additions? Are you looking forward to either movie?