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

Steven Spielberg's long-rumored Abraham Lincoln biopic will go into production in 2009. It may 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 told German magazine Focus while doing advance press for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." (Editor's note: German-to-English translation via Google translator.)

Marvin Levy, Spielberg's spokesman, confirmed the director's production plans to the Los Angeles Times on Sunday morning.

Liam Neeson, who was 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, is still associated with the project, Levy confirmed.

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.

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.

-- Sheigh Crabtree

Comments

[john smythe]

I think Lincoln uner Spielberg would be excellent entertainment. I think that Liam Neeson might be guessing a little as to how to play the 16th President, however. I can't think of any tall, intelligent leads other than James Cromwell, so Casting Directors may have to swim a little deeper in the talent pool to find a Lincoln other than Neeson.

[hg kagan]

Please, please, PLEASE reintroduce Lincoln to us; we so very badly need him and yet all we seem to come up with is someone to help sell a sleep aid (teamed with a beaver no less)and mattress discounts on his birthday. Can anything speak louder of our need for a taste of him more than the current poser-in-chief? Can anyone do better than Spielberg is likely too? Please Steven; give us Abe.

[Kip Ward]

ummm....

i don't think he meant it that way; re the headline for the story .. . .

-kw

[Kip Ward]

ummm....

i don't think he meant it that way; re the headline for the story .. . .

-kw

[Kip Ward]

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

then again, look at that picture . ..

crazy SOB is building a time machine .. . .

(come on; that's funny as hell)

[Mislav]

Everyone knows Steven Spielberg is a very violent man.

[Ponderer]

I assume Spielberg will portray Lincoln as a modern-day liberal like himself, when he would actually be quite conservative by today's standards. I wonder if SS will be kind to the old slave-owning, reactionary Democrats?

[Enthusiast]

I think Daniel Day Lewis would be an excellent choice for Lincoln, when it comes to tall leading men.

[sandbothe]

If you take a look at the Republican Party platform the year that Lincoln became president, you would think that they were today's liberal Democratic party. It still exists in print, and you can find it out there to read. Lincoln's party was anti-corporate, pro worker, and progressive. He was relatively secular as was most of the country not a radical Christian "conservative". He did read the Bible himself, and had his own personal faith formed in critical thought and study, and cetainly not a fundamentalist.
He was a lawyer and state legislator from Illinois. Sounds like Barack Obama!
Anyway I'm sure if it is based on that biography, it is going to be very close to reality. A unifying statesman that put solutions above partisanship, much different than the hyperpartisan Bush administration. He felt deep regret for the dead Americans and his role in waging war. The current administration appears to feel no regret, no guilt, and no responsibility. Bush is like the sociopath-in-chief.
Abraham Lincoln was the original supporter of reperations for African Americans. Do you know anyone that is not a Liberal, a Progressive, or a Democrat today that would even give that a thoughtful consideration? Forty acres and a Mule. That was Lincoln. God Bless his open wide mind.

[sandbothe]

If you take a look at the Republican Party platform the year that Lincoln became president, you would think that they were today's liberal Democratic party. It still exists in print, and you can find it out there to read. Lincoln's party was anti-corporate, pro worker, and progressive. He was relatively secular as was most of the country not a radical Christian "conservative". He did read the Bible himself, and had his own personal faith formed in critical thought and study, and cetainly not a fundamentalist.
He was a lawyer and state legislator from Illinois. Sounds like Barack Obama!
Anyway I'm sure if it is based on that biography, it is going to be very close to reality. A unifying statesman that put solutions above partisanship, much different than the hyperpartisan Bush administration. He felt deep regret for the dead Americans and his role in waging war. The current administration appears to feel no regret, no guilt, and no responsibility. Bush is like the sociopath-in-chief.
Abraham Lincoln was the original supporter of reperations for African Americans. Do you know anyone that is not a Liberal, a Progressive, or a Democrat today that would even give that a thoughtful consideration? Forty acres and a Mule. That was Lincoln. God Bless his open wide mind.

[MCW]

www.dearmrspielberg.com

[Richard]

It is a very interesting comparison: Bush vs. Lincoln. I don't think a lot of people know that before being assasinated Lincoln was very unpopular and the War was hated by most Americans. It was commonly called Lincoln's War because it did not have great popular support. Many people do not know about the draft riots in New York City, they were the worst riots this country ever experienced due to War. Also, while there was great sympathy for slaves, many people had the same view that people have today about instituting democracy Iraq, it not worth fighting a war over and losing the lives of hundreds of thousands of men. The Civil War remains by far the war in which more Americans were killed and maimed than any other war and Lincoln was held responsible for it. I'm not a historian, but my recollection is that before becoming President, he was not much of a religious person, but afterwards, he often read and quoted the Bible.

[Junio Hayworth]

What about the actor who plays Lincoln in that sleeping pill commercial with the talking beaver?..He seems like Oscar material. (The Lincoln guy, I mean. Not the beaver.)