At the Golden Globes yesterday, where Steven Spielberg was being honored with the Cecil B. Demille Award for his life achievement in film, The Hollywood Reporter caught up with the director and asked him about his long-planned biopic of the country’s 16th President Abraham Lincoln, which he’d wanted to make with his Schindler’s List star Liam Neeson in the leading role. Spielberg said that the project was “coming together really quickly” although he wouldn’t commit to a starting date or whether it might happen this year.
Earlier today, ComingSoon.net had a chance to sit down with Neeson to talk about his upcoming Fox action-thriller Taken, co-written and produced by Luc Besson, and we couldn’t resist slipping in a follow-up question about whether he’d heard anything from Mr. Spielberg about the project.
“I don’t know (anything) other than what you know,” he admitted. “He asked me four years ago would I play this part and I most certainly said I would. He’ll do it whenever he’s ready to do it, but it’s in the works.”
Neeson hadn’t seen any script yet, nor did he know from how young Spielberg wanted the actor to play the former President being that Lincoln was shot at the age of 56, Neeson’s current age, but he imagined that he’d be playing him mainly during the Civil War era.
Look for our full video interviews with Neeson and his lovely co-star Maggie Grace before Taken opens on January 30.
