Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ for Christmas 2009?

Posted by Robin Ruinsky (robin@filmschoolrejects.com) on February 10, 2009

While Watchmen grabs all the headlines there’s a movie that I’m really looking forward to. That would be Steven Spielberg’s  Lincoln starring Liam Neeson which uses Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals” as source material.

According to a report from Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere, Tony Kushner has said the film which has been scheduled for a 2011 release might be moved up to Christmas 2009. This seems like some pretty wishful thinking since as of January of this year there was a report that Neeson hadn’t even seen a script for the film. Neeson is the only confirmed cast member with Sally Field listed as “rumored” to play Mary Todd.

A Christmas 2009 release doesn’t look  feasible to me, not unless they rush this through and I’d hate to see Abraham Lincoln given less than top notch treatment. I like superheroes and who was more of one than Abraham Lincoln? He was the man, the one, the guy who held it all together as the country was on the brink of going down in flames. The history surrounding his life and his presidency is so filled with drama that all I can say is this movie better be good.

Lincoln will be the first time Liam Neeson and Spielberg have worked together since Schindler’s List, the film role that got Neeson an Oscar nomination. He’s one of the things Lincoln has going for it, including a screenplay by Tony Kushner, the Pulitzer prize winning playwright, “Angels in America” and direction by Spielberg.

Tony Kushner’s screenplay is said to cover the last sixty days of Lincoln’s life and considering the history involved it is a pretty packed sixty days.  It would mean the film would cover the last battles of the Civil War and of course Lincoln’s assassination.

Which leads me to wonder, who is playing John Wilkes Booth? Johnny Depp, anyone?

Read more articles by Robin Ruinsky