Steven Spielberg’s biopic of Lincoln already has an incredibly impressive cast, and now it’s added another talented name to the ranks, British actor David Oyelowo. He joins Daniel Day Lewis, Sally Field, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones, James Spader, Lee Pace, David Strathairn, Jackie Early Haley and loads more illustrious names.

However all those people previously cast were noticeably white, and seeing as the film will focus on the last few years of Abraham Lincoln’s life, when he was engaged in an enormous civil war largely over the issue of ending slavery, you’d think they might find some space for some black faces.

Now Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes and The Help star Oyelowo has come onboard, according to Deadline. However it doesn’t sound like he’s going to have a particularly big role, as he’ll be playing cavalryman (we can already see the scene of Lincoln being inspired to carry on the fight by Oyelowo’s black cavalryman, going off to war to help his enslaved brothers).

Oyelowo is already currently filming the Tom Cruise flick One Shot, so he’s pretty busy at the moment, but has managed to slot in Spielberg’s film, shooting both roles concurrently. Lincoln will be in cinemas at the end of 2012.

General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser