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Abe's Still On Hold
It's funny how the progress of unfilmed movies evolve in conversations with the principals. Take Steven Spielberg's still-delayed Lincoln, which I'm very keen on seeing because of enthusiasm over Liam Neeson's playing the lead role, and because I've been longing for some kind of big-ass sweeping Civil War feature since falling hard for Ken Burns ' The Civil War way back when, and because there's never been a decent film about Lincoln's White House years.
In August '05 (almost exactly a year ago) I ran a summary of two conversations I'd recently had in Manhattan with Neeson, who was very excited about the opportu- nity and immersed in study about Lincoln, and particularly how to do his voice. Neeson told me about a March '06 start date, adding, as I wrote, that "there was an earlier plan to begin filming in February...but with this, that and whatever (including, probably, some Oscar campaigning for Spielberg's Munich movie) this date will probably get bumped."
Now there's a fresh twist contained an interview with Spielberg running on a fan site called Spielberg Films. Conducted by Steven Awalt, the transcript came out of a q & a than happened three days ago -- Saturday, 7.15. Spielberg is asked at one point (and remember that Awalt is a total Spielberg fan who follows every twist and turn in his career) if Lincoln is "still viable." Awalt doesn't ask when it will shoot, or how excited Spielberg is, or how the research and preparation is coming along. He asks if Lincoln has a pulse.
Spielberg tells him yes, it has a pulse..."it's viable." (There is no word in the English language that alludes to a more profoundly neutered state of being than "viable" -- a truly hateful term.) "The script's being written, and hopefully sometime in September/October of '07 I'll have the chance to start that. I can't guarantee that, it's just, once again, like Indy 4, that script is in process."
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Just to underline, Spielberg is saying there's a "chance" he'll start on the Lincoln pic in the early fall of '07, and if that happens the film might be completed and released in late '08....maybe. At least two years away and then some.
Awalt then asks, "Could it go before Indy 4?" And Spielberg replies, "I don't know, you know...everything's in process right now." Another hateful term -- "in process." A term that refers at best to a state of fog or hesitancy or being immersed in some kind of bureacratic muddle.
It just sounds like there's a lack of passion on Spielberg's part, no? You can feel it in his words -- he's into making Lincoln but...well, let's see how it goes. There's clearly a lack of enthusiasm for the script, which was supposedly being worked on a year or so ago by British playwright Paul Webb, who has written at least two previous screenplays, Four Knights and Spanish Assassins.
There must have been something supporting Neeson's belief a year ago that Lincoln would be shooting by the spring of '06, and just as obviously something Very Big got in the way of that. If Webb's Lincoln screenplay is "in process" like Indy 4, which has been in development since the late '80s, the film might never be made. Spielberg has been talking about making a Lincoln movie since `01, when DreamWorks bought rights to a bio by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Her book -- "Master Among Men: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" -- came out last fall
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 18, 2006 at 8:33 AM
comment #1
Anonymous says ...
Regarding Indy IV, I've heard rumors that Spielberg and Lucas keep delaying this and throwing out perfectly good scripts because neither is super-excited to work with Harrison Ford right now. At least in his current drunkard state.
Posted by Anonymous at July 18, 2006 10:01 AM
comment #2
Mike Gebert says ...
Yeah, I'd have a lack of passion for a movie about Lincoln if I'd made a stuffed Christmas moose like Amistad, too. The problem is, Spielberg's hunting around the wrong books if he's looking to make a Lincoln movie that isn't about a plaster saint. I'd love to see someone make a realistic Lincoln movie, which would be about how he pursued his ambition, how everyone mistakenly thought he was a weak idiot who had gotten us into a needless war (whoops, that one might have some resonance Hollywood wouldn't like), and how he outsmarted a mess of polecats in the form of his scheming, devious cabinet and a widely-admired general (McClellan) who wanted to make a beautiful Army but never use it (hmm, more modern resonance).
Gore Vidal's novel Lincoln, with maybe some backup from William Lee Miller's Lincoln's Virtues and Goodwin's Team of Rivals, would give us a Lincoln worth watching, one as crafty as Don Corleone yet always in the service of the better angels of his nature. Based on Amistad, though, I fear another animatronic Saint Lincoln in the tradition of Raymond Massey.
Posted by Mike Gebert at July 18, 2006 10:05 AM
comment #3
Mike Gebert says ...
(Oops, meant to mention-- before someone points it out-- that there was a TV version of Vidal's Lincoln with Sam Waterston and Mary Tyler Moore, which to my mind is too much marriage, not enough politics, but nevertheless is quite good, the only screen Lincoln I can believe as a working politician.)
Posted by Mike Gebert at July 18, 2006 10:08 AM
comment #4
Jeffrey Wells says ...
Wells to Gebert: I've never read Gore Vidal's "Lincoln" but I think I'm going to start reading it this weekend. "...another animatronic Saint Lincoln in the tradition of Raymond Massey" -- that's funny.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells at July 18, 2006 10:09 AM
comment #5
Colin says ...
Hmm...so Spielberg does Munich in 2005, based on the the Goerge Jonas book Vengeance, which was made into a TV movie in 1986, 19 years earlier.
Now, if Spielberg did use the Vidal book to make Lincoln in 2007, he would be doing it 19 years after it was made into a TV movie in 1988.
Posted by Colin at July 18, 2006 10:22 AM
comment #6
Rich S. says ...
It's odd how Spielberg seems to have trouble working on long-gestating projects. His last two, War of the Worlds and Munich, seemed to almost come out of nowhere. One day, you heard he was making them, then a year later, they were in release. Remember how long he toyed with Memoirs of a Geisha? It would be interesting to see his gears turning right now.
Oh, and Mike, I second Jeff's thanks for that post about other Lincoln sources. Good stuff.
Posted by Rich S. at July 18, 2006 10:29 AM
comment #7
Dave at Garfield Ridge says ...
Why doesn't Spielberg skip the middleman and combine these two films?
A wise-cracking presidential archaeologist launches an invasion of the Old South in order to find hidden treasure protected by racist Nazis/Klansmen-- I'd see that!
Posted by Dave at Garfield Ridge at July 18, 2006 10:42 AM
comment #8
Paul says ...
Will "The Word" ever be restored to the Hollywood Elsewhere Classic page? It's been missing the last few days.
Posted by Paul at July 18, 2006 11:13 AM
comment #9
Capsfan6 says ...
Love the idea of the "Abe Lincoln and the National Treasure" from Dave at Garfield Ridge. :)
I read "Team of Rivals" about a month or so ago. It was great and if done right would be a superb movie. A totally different view of Lincoln -- dynamic, funny, smart -- than we usually get, of the melancholy tall man. There's always a sizeable group interested in the Civil War (my dad says every generation goes through a phase of fascination with it), so I'd bet there's an audience.
Posted by Capsfan6 at July 18, 2006 1:18 PM
comment #10
Edward says ...
I agree with Mike and would love to see a Lincoln that's shows his flaws and greatness, his brilliance and his doubts.
Ken Burns "Civil War" was amazing, but he's worn out his style, I'm afraid. He does what he does very well, but I wish he'd let his subject dictate how to tell the story than forcing the story into his style.
Posted by Edward at July 18, 2006 1:22 PM
comment #11
Alexander Coleman says ...
One of Spielberg's flaws is that he speaks too much like a corporate businessman. Anyone close to him knows that he had a lot of passion about Munich, but in at least a couple of interviews in 2004 (after it was delayed for about a year due to script issues and Spielberg went off to direct War in the Worlds in the meantime) he would say "it's viable." I think he just uses terms like that, which I don't like, either, but behind that he does have passion for the projects he's pursuing. Lincoln isn't a Memoirs of a Geisha; from what I hear, Spielberg really wants to do this one.
I hope he gets around to it in September 2007 for a 2008 release.
I'm really starting to think Indy 4 won't happen again. Please let that be true.
Posted by Alexander Coleman at July 18, 2006 2:20 PM
comment #12
akabob says ...
Well, there is this new animated series coming to the Sci-Fi Network -- The Amazing Screw-On Head from the creator of Hellboy. He's a Secret Agent for Lincoln. Pretty wild & funny stuff.
http://www.scifi.com/amazingscrewonhead/
Paul Giamatti is the (voice) star.
Posted by akabob at July 18, 2006 2:45 PM
comment #13
nemo says ...
I second the recommendation of Gore Vidal's "Lincoln". The novel gives a very good view of Lincoln as a crafty politician among other crafty politicians. Vidal's portrait of William Seward, Lincoln's Secretary of State who bought Alaska, among other accomplishments, is a hoot. Seward is a cunning politician who only gradually realizes that his new boss is even more cunning. Seward would be a great role for the right actor; he's a dead ringer for Alan Rickman, who would bring Seward the right combination of vanity and wiliness.
I read Vidal's "Lincoln" the same month I read "Abe" by Richard Slotkin, a fictional account of Lincoln's raft trip at age 19 down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers from Indiana to New Orleans. Slotkin's day job is as a historian rather than a novelist, but he succeeds admirably as a novelist.
Slotkin said that part of his aim was in the novel was to understand "how a man raised as a 'normal' nineteenth century racist was able to transcend the limitations of his culture." His Lincoln is an awkward half-formed young man who is repeatedly reminded that despite his intelligence and ambition, he is looked down on as white trash.
I've never read Slotkin's historical writing, but it sounds as if it has a lot to offer to anyone with an interest in the mythology of Hollywood Westerns, with titles such as "Gunfighter Nation" and "Regeneration Through Violence". Slotkin also wrote an introduction to the Penguin edition of "The Last of the Mohicans".
Posted by nemo at July 18, 2006 3:00 PM
comment #14
Nick says ...
In the wake of Pirates, its now or never for Jones 4. Why don't they take the "great" Darabont script that is mentioned in the interview, have all character names changed, and advertise it as "From The People Who Gave You Indiana Jones, comes Illinois Smith". Get Depp in the role and you'll break Pirate's record. It may sound stupid, but its a better idea than putting a whip back in Ford's hands. He was lost forever when he passed on Traffic.
Lincoln sounds alot like Geisha in terms of how its going. Just get anyone other than Rob Marshall to direct it and I'm happy.
Posted by Nick at July 18, 2006 5:29 PM
comment #15
Clifford Anderson says ...
Spielberg & Lucas don't want to work with Ford now that he only acts with one side of his face. Fucker have a stroke or something?
Posted by Clifford Anderson at July 18, 2006 11:46 PM
comment #16
BoothTarkington says ...
I believe Harrison Ford has a movie coming out where he plays the guy who tracked down Lincoln's killer. The climax to Spielberg's opus will be all used up.
Posted by BoothTarkington at July 19, 2006 12:55 AM
comment #17
Duck of Death says ...
I'm tripling the Gore Vidal suggestion and would also love to see an adaptation of "Hollywood" another of his American Chronicles which deals with the dawning of the age of modern propaganda.
Posted by Duck of Death at July 19, 2006 2:50 AM
comment #18
Eric Marshall says ...
To Mr. Wells,
Thanks for reading this again. Just writing because I read your past article from two years again about the DVD release of "Blow-Up." Although I haven't seen the movie yet, I need to ask one question before I watch it and that is: How can a character like Jane (Vanessa Redgrave) go into a house/apartment of a stranger (David Hemmings' Thomas) and start strip off their clothing over a roll a film? You know, when I saw the stills in the chapter index I was stunned because I thought this was the closest to being a porno film. So anyway, that is all I need to say.
Posted by Eric Marshall at July 19, 2006 7:36 AM
comment #19
Eric Marshall says ...
To Mr. Wells,
Thanks for reading this again. Just writing because I read your past article from two years ago about the DVD release of "Blow-Up." Although I haven't seen the movie yet, I need to ask one question before I watch it and that is: How can a character like Jane (Vanessa Redgrave) go into a house/apartment of a stranger (David Hemmings' Thomas) and start to strip off their clothing over a roll a film? You know, when I saw the stills in the chapter index I was stunned because I thought this was the closest to being a porno film. So anyway, that is all I need to say.
Posted by Eric Marshall at July 19, 2006 7:37 AM
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