Neeson says he won't play Lincoln for Spielberg

For the last few years Steven Spielberg has been talking up his long-gestating biopic of Abraham Lincoln, which was supposed to star Liam Neeson.

Well now it appears that Neeson is out of the equation. Speaking to the UK's early morning breakfast show GMTV, he said: “I’m not actually playing Lincoln now. I was attached to it for a while, but it’s now I’m past my sell-by date."

He may have a point - the 16th American president was 56 when he was assassinated in 1865, Neeson is currently 58 - but even so it's disappointing that Spielberg won't be re-teaming with his Schindler's List star.

Spielberg acquired the rights to Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography of Lincoln, Team of Rivals, and John Logan took a first pass at the script. The last we heard was that Munich screenwriter Tony Kushner was commissioned for a re-write.

Just because the film seems close to dead right now, don't forget that Steven Spielberg first started developing Schindler's List back in 1983 - so never say never.