She’s been linked to the film for years, with her name last cropping up way back in 2007, but now that Steven Spielberg has finally begun active work on historical biopic Lincoln, Sally Field is officially aboard the film to play Mary Todd Lincoln.

Of course, back in ’07, everyone thought Liam Neeson would be donning the muttonchops and stovepipe hat to play the legendary and ill-fated 16th President of the United States. But things have long since moved on and now it will be Daniel Day-Lewis in the beard.

The script has been adapted by Munich’s Tony Kushner from Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals, and will follow the President’s wrangling with his cabinet as he fought to abolish slavery and finish the Civil War.

"I'm excited to be working with Sally for the first time,” said Steven Spielberg in a statement picked up by Deadline. “I've admired her films and she has always been my first choice to portray all the fragility and complexity that was Mary Todd Lincoln."

Field seems equally as enthused: “To have the opportunity to work with Steven Spielberg and Daniel Day-Lewis and to play one of the most complicated and colourful women in American history is simply as good as it gets.”

While this is a solid step towards getting the thing actually made, we won’t believe it’s happening until Spielberg is on set later this year.