Director Steven Spielberg is always careful when picking his next project from a slew he has on the backburner. Indeed, it took the Hollywood legend 11 years to tweak his take on Lincoln before that one went before cameras. Thus, it is not necessarily a surprise when he drops out of yet another film.
Despite having announced in May that American Sniper, a film that would star Bradley Cooper as decorated Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, would be his next movie, Deadline is now reporting that Spielberg is withdrawing from the project, along with his co-producing DreamWorks label. Apparently, the auteur could not achieve his vision for the material with the budget available.
The withdrawal is markedly respectful to the other studio on the line, Warner Brothers, as it allows them to pursue new partners and filmmakers without any contractual hang-ups with DreamWorks. And given Bradley Cooper’s swift rise in respectability following the one-two punch of David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle, not to mention his $1.4 billion Hangover franchise bankability, it is not hard to imagine someone will quickly step in.
This marks the second consecutive film that Spielberg has dropped out of following the Academy Award Winning Lincoln. Earlier this year, the filmmaker was strapped into the fast track with a screenplay for Robocalypse by Drew Goddard’s (Cabin in the Woods). The film would be an adaptation of the Daniel H. Wilson sci-fi novel of the same name about a mechanical Armageddon that begins when a little girl has cyber-eyes implanted. The film got as far as casting Chris Hemsworth and Anne Hathaway in the lead roles until Spielberg postponed the film in January for an unknown time until he rebuilds his vision from the ground up.
It is unclear what Spielberg will direct next, but it is unlikely to be Robocalypse and certainly not American Sniper.