DreamWorks Financial Troubles May Sink Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’

Okay, there is a lot of financial jargon in Kim Masters’ article on DreamWorks’ financial problems over at The Big Money.   The short and skinny of it is that Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ may be deader than the actual president.

Here’s an excerpt from the article that says everything:

Spielberg has been developing the project for years and now hopes to start filming within weeks. But DreamWorks’ money troubles have cost him. This past weekend, he’s been waiting for executives at Paramount—the studio he ditched last year—to decide whether to make the film and hire him to direct it. (Update: A knowledgeable source told me on Wednesday that Paramount has passed on ‘Lincoln’.)

So now Paramount is deciding whether it wants to make ‘Lincoln’. The decider is Brad Grey—the man the DreamWorks team treated for a long time as a mortal enemy. Paramount already passed on ‘Lincoln’ a couple of years ago, citing the size of the budget. Since then, Spielberg has trimmed the cost to about $50 million. Still, this doesn’t seem like an easy call: The Lincoln movie—an earnest 19^th-century drama—calls to mind one of Spielberg’s least commercially successful films, ‘Amistad’.

So, it doesn’t look well for Spielberg’s passion project. There has been news about this film for years.   I think I remember hearing about this way back on Corona Coming Attractions when the Internet was young and hypercolor t-shirts were in style.

What do you think?   Should Paramount back Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’?   Should the film get financed, should Spielberg stick with Liam Neeson as his first choice for the title role?   Were hypercolor t-shirts ever really in style?   Let us know by commenting below!

Source: The Big Money