It’s one of the greatest classics from the Golden Age of Hollywood, and now it’s been announced Steven Spielberg is going to remake the 1950 Jimmy Stewart movie, Harvey. He’s planning a new take on the film, and has just taken poseession of a new draft of the script from novelist Jonathan Topper. While last week there was talk of Spielberg directing a Matt Helm secret agent movie, it now seems he will only produce that movie, instead concentrating on Harvey.
The Harvey remake is due to be the first produced by the new incarnation of Dreamworks. Spielberg took the name with him when he left Paramount and he has now found financing to set the company up independently again.
Although no actors have yet been announced for the film, pre-production is due to start immediately, with Spielberg hoping to film the movie early next year, although what’s the betting they’re gonna try and get Tom Hanks for this? While he’s a bit of a low-rent Jimmy Stewart, he’s probably the closest we’ve got at the moment.
Let’s just hope the end result is better than the last time Spielberg decided to retackle a Golden Age film, which resulted in the 1943 Spencer Tracy movie, A Guy Named Joe, getting turned into the horrifically insipid Always in 1989.
To be honest though, I hope this works, as Harvey is a magnificent movie and it really deserves to be brought to the sort of audience who refuse to watch black and white movies. However Spielberg had better keep his sentimental streak in check.