It’s pretty much established that Liam Neeson will be playing President Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s as-yet unfilmed Lincoln biopic, loosely based on Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals about the Lincoln, his cabinet and the Civil War. But there are still big questions to be answered and big casting choices to be made. Will Liam Neeson play the president gay? Probably not, because Liam doesn’t think there’s enough evidence. But one of the biggest questions remaining is, who will play Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth?

Booth was one of the most famous actors of his day, and he was photographed and talked about often enough that there is still, to this day, a large number of source materials to base the character. I saw a History Channel special on the assassination, and I was surprised at just how much stuff there still is of Booth’s. He was a handsome man, with dark hair and eyes and he wore his mutton-chops well. So who would make a good John Wilkes Booth? George Clooney? Johnny Depp? Or neither? Entertainment Weekly discusses:

There was a rumor going around that this President’s Day Steven Spielberg would finally announce a production start date for his long-awaited Abraham Lincoln biopic. No such luck. We’re still waiting to find out more about this intriguing project.

All we know at this point is that Liam Neeson (who picked up an Oscar nomination the last time he worked with Spielberg, in Schindler’s List) is attached to star as the stovepipe-hat-wearing commander in chief; that Sally Field might end up playing Mary Todd Lincoln; and that Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner (who nabbed an Oscar nomination for writing Spielberg’s Munich) has been hard at work on a script, which will reportedly focus on the last two months of Lincoln’s life.

What we were really hoping to find out today was who’ll be playing John Wilkes Booth, the Confederate loyalist who murdered Lincoln in 1865 during a play at Washington, D.C.’s Ford’s Theatre, then jumped onto the stage to take a bow before escaping into the night.

What makes that character so interesting, at least to us, is the fact that Booth was an actor.

And not just any actor, but one of the most famous and successful of his day. To put it in 21st-century terms, it’d be as if George Clooney or Johnny Depp had been implicated in the assassination of a president. Come to think of it, either of those two stars would be perfect for the part, if they’d be willing to grow a Booth-esque mustache. Or maybe Spielberg should go for a JWB-style three-name thespian. Johnny Lee Miller, perhaps? Or Daniel Day-Lewis? How about Sarah Jessica Parker?

From Entertainment Weekly

My vote would be for either Daniel Day-Lewis (their looks are strikingly similar) or Johnny Depp. Even though Booth was known a preening pretty-boy (the Clooney of his day), I doubt Clooney could pull off such a period-oriented role.

I really hope Sally Field hasn’t confirmed as Mary Todd Lincoln – that would not be good. How do I say this? They need to cast someone a bit “fuller” – Mary was a small, plump woman who was going through some really rough years. This is not the time for bubbly or spunky.