Honest, Spielberg is finally making Lincoln

Steven Spielberg's long-gestating biopic of Abraham Lincoln is going ahead at last, with Liam Neeson expected to play the US president who initiated the American civil war.

The Jaws director first expressed interest in bringing Lincoln's life to the big screen seven years ago, but other projects, such as Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can, filled his schedule. Three years ago, it was thought that the movie would finally come to fruition but it was again delayed, with Spielberg focusing instead on War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

But it seems it's third time lucky for Spielberg. "I want to start Lincoln in early 2009, because it's Lincoln's 200th anniversary," he told the German magazine Focus. Liam Neeson, the star of his Oscar-winning second world war epic Schindler's List, is still lined up for the role of America's 16th president.

The biopic is adapted by Munich writer and playwright Tony Kushner, from a biography by Pulitzer prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin entitled Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Scheduling problems have not entirely been overcome yet, however, and any shoot will only take place after Spielberg has finished with the comic-book adaptation of Tintin, which itself is only expected to start in September.