Spielberg Hooks Big Fish

August 11, 2000 -- Steven Spielberg is reeling in a Big Fish — and no, it's not a killer ocean beast, o hopeful Jaws fans.

It's actually a male weepie along the lines of Tuesdays With Morrie or even that ultimate father-son flick, Field of Dreams.

Daniel Wallace's novel Big Fish is a tall-tale-driven story about a son trying to sort out fact from fancy about his dying father. The son ends up making up fantastic, and often hilarious, legends and myths pegged to the few details he knows about his mostly absentee dad. Sniff, sob, pass those masculine hankies this way.

Spielberg would reportedly start on the film in summer 2001, after getting that sci-fi jones out of his system with A.I. and Minority Report.

Pardon us if we don't hold our breath about that start date — given the countless times his previously announced projects have been bumped.