Liam Neeson no longer Spielberg's 'Lincoln'

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It sounded like such a dream team: Steven Spielberg directing Tony Kushner’s screenplay about the life of Abraham Lincoln, with Liam Neeson in the title role. And now it turns out it’ll be just a dream after all: Neeson said in an interview with Britain’s GMTV on Friday that he’s no longer attached to the project. “I’m past my sell-by date,” Neeson quipped, referring to the fact that he’s 58 while Lincoln was assassinated at age 56. A rep for the actor tells EW.com, “That project has never seemed to come to fruition so he just moved on a couple of years ago.” Indeed, Spielberg has been keeping busy with several other projects: He’s wrapped The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn starring Daniel Craig and is now in pre-production on the WWI drama War Horse. (Both projects are scheduled for 2011 releases.) But that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. “It is a film we all hope to make,” says Spielberg’s rep at DreamWorks. “So much depends on timing and all the elements coming together at the right moment. Schindler’s List was around here for over 10 years. It was worth it, wouldn’t you say?” Point taken.

So with Neeson out of the picture, who else could play Honest Abe? Is any other great actor tall enough?