You better not screw this up, Spielberg.

It looks like Steven Spielberg's long-delayed biopic of Pres. Abraham Lincoln is finally on the front burner:

The director [has said] that he will return his attention to an epic project about the 16th president, for a DreamWorks film that could begin filming possibly by early next year.

[...]

The Lincoln project could be ready for an early 2009 shoot because of several variables: Spielberg has proved adept at shooting back-to-back films, which he did most memorably when he made "Jurassic Park" and the Oscar-winning "Schindler's List" in 1993. Also, his Lincoln project -- informed by the biography by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's "The Uniter: The Genius of Abraham Lincoln" -- has a strong script by "Angels in America" playwright Tony Kushner (who rewrote "Munich" for Spielberg).

Liam Neeson has already agreed to star in the film. Good choice, I think.

Of course, since Lincoln was a Republican, and Tony Kushner is, well, what he is, I halfway expect the film to focus on Lincoln's suspension of some civil liberties and the shock revelation that he loved himself some abortion.

In a move reminiscent of Courtney Love being cast as Althea Leasure, Sean Young has signed on to play Mary Todd Lincoln. I keed, I keed.