After working for over six months on his remake of 1950′s Harvey, Steven Spielberg announced this week that he was backing out of the project. And this after 20th Century Fox had already scheduled soundstages to be ready to go for the film to begin production at the beginning of 2010.
Despite the idea phase of Harvey starting out strong last summer, the film has seen some trouble getting started, with Spielberg and the studio courting both Tom Hanks and Robert Downey Jr. to play the role made famous by James Stewart, but both turned the part down–Downey after creative differences regarding the script occurred with Spielberg. Now, Spielberg has officially walked, with no specific reason being given for doing so.
Spielberg does have several potential projects at his disposal, so it’s likely a matter of deciding to seek greener pastures. Thus the question is what he’ll decide to do instead of Harvey, and who DreamWorks will choose to helm the film in Spielberg’s place.
