Spielberg confirms 'Lincoln' biopic

Steven Spielberg will begin production on his long in-development Abraham Lincoln film after he completes work on Tintin, reports say.

The director, who has shelved plans to make The Trial of the Chicago 7 due to the looming SAG strike, told FOCUS magazine he will film Lincoln at the start of 2009 "so that it can also open in the same year as Lincoln's 200th anniversary which comes round then".

The Lincoln movie, which is rumoured to star Liam Neeson as the sixteenth President of the US and Sally Field as his wife Mary, is a project Spielberg has pursued since 2001.

Spielberg added that a potential actors' strike wouldn't derail plans to shoot Tintin this September.

"That doesn't affect us as it is an animation film with motion capture technology," he noted.