HR reports that James Spader is the latest castmember to join Tommy Lee Jones’ new film The Homesman, which already will star Hilary Swank, John Lithgow, Tim Blake Nelson and Meryl Streep. There were many women homesteaders and landgrabbers back in the 1800s and the rules were the same for them as they were for the men: hold onto the land and you can keep it. It’s a subject I’ve been researching, rabbit-hole style, for a few years now and am glad to hear Tommy Lee is about to take it in hand. At any rate, it sounds like it’s about homesteading:
Set in 1855 Nebraska, the story tells of a frontier woman and a claim jumper who ferry a wagonload of women, driven insane by the harsh world of the frontier, eastward to Iowa and back to the civilized world.
While details of Spader’s role are being played close to the vest, it is known he will play a swindler.
More about the Homestead Act of 1862:
The Homestead Act was notable for its specific inclusion of women. A single, divorced, or widowed woman, as long as she fulfilled the other requirements of the Act, was specifically granted the same rights to earn and hold property as a man. A large number of women thus became independent in an age when many modern people assume that they were unable to act on their own behalf. Children were also protected with rights of survivorship if both parents died.
This is all very exciting. In every possible way.
