Scroll down for the first official look at Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s aptly titled Lincoln.

Spielberg on Lincoln:

“Lincoln had a very, very complicated – and at the same time, extremely clear — inner life. He thought things out. He talked things out. He argued both sides of every issue. And he was very careful in making any decision. As a matter of fact, his opponents and his enemies criticized him often for being impossibly slow to a decision.

“Our movie is really about a working leader who must make tough decisions and get things done in the face of overwhelming opposition.

“The film begins with Lincoln’s realization that the Emancipation Proclamation, the thing he is most known for, was simply a war powers act that would easily be struck down by any number of lawyers after the cessation of hostilities after the Civil War. He needed to abolish slavery by constitutional measure — and that’s where we start.”

What about the reports that Day-Lewis went method on set?

“Daniel was always conscious of his contemporary surroundings,” Spielberg says. “Daniel never went into a fugue state. He did not channel Lincoln. All that stuff is just more about gossip than it is about technique.”

Spielberg went to great lengths to make his film historically accurate, while also probing the lesser know regions of Lincolns life, the director has said he will largely ignore Lincoln’s vampire hunting.

“I feel it was covered perfectly in Timur [Bekmambetov]‘s film,” the director said. “I’ve no want or desire to traverse territory already conquered.”

Lincoln will hit theatres November 16th.

SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly