Lincoln

[MacGuffin]

Spielberg Parks His Lincoln?
Honest Abe biopic on hold.

According to Hollywood Elsewhere columnist Jeffrey Wells, Lincoln, Steven Spielberg's long-planned biopic of the 16th President of the United States, is on hold.

"I spoke to Liam Neeson twice last summer at a couple of post-movie-premiere parties, and he said that the plan was for Steven Spielberg's Abraham Lincoln movie, in which he'll play the title role, to start shooting sometime around March '06," Wells reports.

"Forget it -- Spielberg's spokesperson Marvin Levy told me yesterday the Lincoln project (which will be based in part upon Doris Kearns Goodwin's recently published book about Lincoln) won't roll anytime soon and is basically up in the air."

Does this mean Spielberg is not interested in doing another political movie so soon after Munich? And will Indiana Jones IV be his top priority now? Time will tell.

[polkablues]

This is just one of the seven projects Spielberg will be attached to and drop out of between now and the time his next movie comes out.  Let history be our guide.

[Ravi]

Sarah Vowell and Conan O'Brien should direct this.

[Pubrick]

hope he doesn't skimp on the lincoln squirrel subplot.

[Anonymous Joe]

or this

[MacGuffin]

Liam Neeson Talks Lincoln

ComingSoon.net sat down in New York on Tuesday with Liam Neeson to talk about his role in the new western Seraphim Falls. During the discussion he let spill some details of his preparation for Steven Spielberg's planned biopic Lincoln, in which Neeson will play the famously tall and doomed 16th President.

ComingSoon.net: Did what you learned about the Civil War era for "Seraphim Falls" inform your preparation for "Lincoln"?
Neeson: Oh absolutely, yeah because when they asked me to do "Seraphim Falls" I was already a year into research for "Lincoln." Very very heavily into the Civil War and that whole period. That's still an ongoing process.

CS: What sort of things are you doing to portray this person who was certainly never captured on film and whose physical mannerisms and voice are basically hearsay?
Neeson: We know a lot about him, it's not hearsay. There's over two-thousand books written on this man. Two-thousand. Some of them are great books, I've read about twenty-two maybe.

CS: Have you visited his home?
Neeson: I've been there. I've been to Washington, I've held his wallet, I've said a prayer on the Bible he was inaugurated on. Still ongoing... there's an extraordinary Lincoln bicentennial committee, a place I go to in Washington. I got to know this guy Michael Bishop who's the co-chair. He gave me access to all this Lincoln stuff. I read his personal letters and stood on the stage at Ford's Theater.

CS: Did they let you into the balcony?
Neeson: You can't go in there, no. It's sealed off. But I love the fact that he loved the theater. There's not too many presidents you see going to see plays every so often. Lincoln did, all the time! He supported live theater, which is terrific.

CS: He should have stayed away from "Our American Cousin."
Neeson: I know. (laughs)

Spielberg will first direct Indiana Jones 4 before turning his attention to this project.

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Sally Field Joins Spielberg's Lincoln
Source: ComingSoon

Newsweek reports that Sally Field ("Brothers and Sisters") has joined the Steven Spielberg-directed Abraham Lincoln, starring Liam Neeson in the title role. Field will play Mary Todd, wife of the 16th U.S. president.

The DreamWorks movie will be based on a bio written by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin titled "Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln."

The 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth will happen in February, 2009.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20870247/site/newsweek/page/0/

[ElPandaRoyal]

I hope this doesn't get to be another Amistad. El Spielbergo is way to good to make another one like that...

[MacGuffin]

Steven Spielberg: He wants to shoot 'Abraham Lincoln' in 2009
Source: Los Angeles Times

Steven Spielberg's long-rumored Abraham Lincoln biopic will be the director's next project after "Tintin," which is expected to go into production in September.

"I want to start 'Lincoln' in early 2009, because it's Lincoln's 200th anniversary," Spielberg reportedly told German magazine Focus while doing advance press for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

A request for confirmation from the studio was not immediately returned on Saturday afternoon.

It was expected that Spielberg's next project would be "Chicago Seven," about protesters at the historic 1968 Democratic National Convention, but the script was not ready and production had to be postponed, the director told Focus.

Three years ago Liam Neeson was reportedly in talks to play the 16th U.S. president based on an adaptation of "Team of Rivals: The Genius of Abraham Lincoln," a biography by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.

While Spielberg's shingle DreamWorks is currently home to the "Lincoln" and "Tintin" projects, it remains to be seen whether the production company will retain its ties with distributor Paramount.

[Alexandro]

I don't know what it is about this project that feels as if it's going to be insanely boring. A two and a half hours blowjob to Lincoln and american ideals, with John Williams's unmemorable quiet music sweetening up everything and telling the audience when something meaningful is happening. The one thing about it that sounds awesome is Liam Neeson in the lead role. Hopefully he will not spend the entire movie pissed at his daddy or searching a father figure or being a bad father or something to do with those daddy issues that are Spielberg's obsessions.

[Gamblour.]

Spielberg's Lincoln Troubles

Very interesting article on the studio money juggle of this film.

[Stefen]

Set this shit in space.

[modage]

Steven Spielberg: He wants to shoot 'Abraham Lincoln' in 2009

SPOILER!
i've got bad news. i think someone already beat him to it!

[Gamblour.]

Haha, that joke was 9 months in the making, but so worth it.

[MacGuffin]

Spielberg: Lincoln Lives
Director's rep denies biopic has been shelved.

The big screen Abraham Lincoln has not been assassinated by Paramount Pictures, according to the publicist for director Steven Spielberg.

Spielberg's flack Marvin Levy informed Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider blog, "Lincoln is alive and well and continues in active development. ... Everyone is proceeding with great enthusiasm. The script is still being revised by Tony Kushner and our plans are now to shoot the picture later this year."

EW claims a reliable source had informed them that Paramount shelved the $50 million biopic due to concerns over its cost. Other studios are also said to have passed on it for the same reason.

Liam Neeson remains attached to play the slain president.