Field is Mrs. Lincoln?

Although he’s toiling night and day shooting INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULLS, the wheels are already in motion for Steven Spielberg’s next project, a planned biopic called LINCOLN (if I need to tell you who its about, then you need history lessons). It’s already known that Liam Neeson is set to play Abe, but now a Newsweek article is claiming that Sally Field (MRS. DOUBTFIRE) has been cast to play his wife, Mary Todd.

Remember, this information isn’t coming from the trade papers, but from an article in Newsweek about an exhibit on the troubled final days of Mrs. Lincoln, so the news isn’t official but it seems likely. Mary Todd spent the final days of her life in an insane asylum after watching her husband get shot and the death of three of her children, so this could be a potentially plump role for Field, who just picked up an Emmy for her role in the show BROTHERS & SISTERS.

Spielberg’s film will be based on the book TEAM OF RIVALS: THE POLITICAL GENIUS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, and the script is currently being re-written by Eric Roth, who worked with Field before on FORREST GUMP.