Spielberg makes history personal with Lincoln
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LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Steven Spielberg said it was tough to persuade British actor Daniel Day-Lewis to play Abraham Lincoln - but the result was worth the struggle, winning rave reviews and Oscars speculation.
Lincoln, released in the United States (US) this weekend, is an intimate portrait of the 16th US president as he struggles to change history by abolishing slavery amid the still-raging the Civil War.
The veteran director had wanted to make a film about Lincoln, probably America's most revered president, who was assassinated in April 1865, for more than a decade.
"I've just always had a personal fascination with the myth of Abraham Lincoln," he said ahead of the film's red carpet premier at the American Film Institute (AFI) festival, which traditionally starts the annual Oscars race.
