It's been four score and seven Steven Spielberg might have procrastinated a bit too long on that Lincoln biopic -- he's lost his leading man. "I'm not actually playing Lincoln now," says Liam Neeson. "I was attached to it for a while, but now I'm past my sell-by date." Now, come on, it's not as if Abe is an action hero, like, say, "The A-Team's" Hannibal.
The final reel Daniel Day-Lewis will play Prof. Moriarty opposite Robert Downey Jr. in the "Sherlock Holmes" sequel. ... Charlize Theron stars in "Young Adult," the upcoming collaboration between "Juno" co-conspirators Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman. ... Len Wiseman ("Underworld," "Live Free or Die Hard") is taking on a remake of "Total Recall." ... J.J. Abrams will produce "Boilerplate," based on the graphic novel about a Victorian-era robot. ... Guillermo del Toro's version of "The Haunted Mansion" will be quite different from Eddie Murphy's 2003 original: "If you take the children, they will scream," he promised. ... Shocker: Leonardo DiCaprio has bowed out of Mel Gibson's movie about the Vikings (the ancient ones), apparently looking to distance himself from Mad Mel. "Leo has earned the right to pick and choose who he works with, and Mel Gibson is not one of them," said a source close to DiCaprio.
CYNTHIA DICKISON
