Steven Spielberg's long-gestating project about US president Abraham Lincoln will be the director's next project after the first live-action Tintin film which goes into production this September.

Spielbergsays he will begin shooting of the Lincoln biopic at the beginning of 2009 'so that it can also open in the same year as Lincoln's 200th anniversary which comes round then.'

Originally, Spielberg had been planning Chicago Seven as his next project about the famous 1960s trial of the protestors at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.

However, this project had to be postponed since the screenplay was not yet ready, leading to the Lincoln project being brought forward in its place.

In an interview with the German weekly magazine FOCUS ahead of the world premiere of the new Indiana Jones film in Cannes, Spielbergalso saidproduction on Tintin would not be threatened by a possible actors' strike.

'That doesn't affect us as it is an animation film with motion capture technology,' he said.

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