Over the weekend, news broke that Liam Neeson has dropped out of Lincoln, Steven Spielberg’s long-awaited biopic on Abraham Lincoln.

Neeson, who has been attached to the role since it was initially announced in 2006, said in an interview with GMTV, when asked about the project, “I’m not actually playing Lincoln now. I was attached to it for a while, but it’s now I’m past my sell-by date.”

The project would have reunited Spielberg and Neeson who worked together on the critically-acclaimed Schindler’s List, but it seems that will no longer happen. It is unknown who will take Neeson’s place, or if the film will even go ahead. It seems now the project has now slipped into limbo until Spielberg has finished his new films.

Spielberg is currently shooting War Horse, about a cavalry sent to the trenches of World War One, which will be released in 2011. He is also putting the finishing touches to The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.

Neeson will next be seen in The Next Three Days, a drama by Paul Haggis; followed imminently by The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Neeson will provide the voice of Aslan.

Digitalspy reported this one.