Harvey Remake Runs Into Trouble

Written by Ian Cullen on December 5, 2009 – 12:40 pm -

jimmy_harveyA remake of the classic Jimmy Stewart movie Harvey, which was based on Mary Chase’s Pulitzer Prize winning play has been discussed for a number of years now, and earlier this year when Stephen Spielberg was linked to it. A remake of the classic 50s movie, which starred the late great Jimmy Stewart looked like a more solid possibility.

However, now it looks like the movie could be heading back to development hell due to the fact that Tom Hanks who is considered by many to be the modern version of Jimmy Stewart doesn’t want anything to do with the project.

According to Variety Spielberg has dropped out of the project because he couldn’t get Tom Hanks or Robert Downey Jr to portray the role of Elwood P. Dowd, which was originated by the late James Stewart in both the play and the 50s movie adaptation.

For those not in the know. Harvey is a movie that centres on a man who hangs around with a 6 and a half foot white rabbit called Harvey, which know one else can see. And the real casting challenge for the movie is to find someone who can portray the emotional complexity of the Elwood P. Dowd character. Which is always going to be a stumbling block, given that the movie Harvey has a pretty strong cult following.

Tom Hanks was Spielberg’s first choice for the role, but for awhile he was courting Robert Downey Jr for the role. Only the two couldn’t agree on the script for the movie, which pretty much brought Spielberg to a point where he chose to wrest himself from the project.

There is still a possibility that 20th Century Fox who are co financing the movie could talk Spielberg into coming back, but the director/producers plate is pretty full at present. So it’s not likely to happen anytime soon.

So for now the remake of Harvey is once more in limbo.

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