If he’s not careful, Steven Spielberg will just become a director who nearly makes films, without ever actually geting anything into cinemas. A few months ago it looked like he was going to direct Matt Helm, before Gary Ross took over, and then it was announced that he was going full steam ahead on a remake of the James Stewart classic Harvey, with shooting due to begin as early as next spring.
However he’s now pulled out of Harvey as well. Although the production had already got to the point where soundstages had been put aside for the the shoot, Spielberg has decided the film, which was supposed to be his first directing gig for the newly reborn Dreamworks, won’t happen with him on board.
Although no reason was given for his departure, Variety speculates that it may have been down to creative differences and difficulty finding an Elwood P. Dowd, the man who befriends a six and a half foot tall invisible rabbit in Harvey. Initially Spielberg wanted Tom Hanks, but despite (or perhaps because of) often being compared to Jimmy Stewart, Hanks wanted nothing to do with it. Then Spielberg went to Robert Downey Jr. who was never officially attached, but made script suggestions. However due to the fact the director and star didn’t really find themselves in sync and Downey Jr. wouldn’t commit, Spielberg has now pulled out.
The film, which was due to be a co-production by Dreamworks and Fox 2000, will stay in development at Fox, and the company may re-approach Spielberg and Downey Jr. in the future, once they’ve worked on Jonathan Topper’s script a bit more.
Spielberg is apparently itching to make a film, especially as The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn finished shooting months ago but post-production work means it won’t be out until 2011. However while he’s got everything from his long-gestating Lincoln biopic to the thriller The 39 Clues in the works, there’s nothing so far that seems close to going into production.