In light of Steven Spielberg’s recent attachment to a remake of the 1950 James Stewart led film “Harvey,” many were predicting that the new project may reignite the partnership between the director and Tom Hanks, often called the modern day Stewart.
Thankfully though, Hanks and Spielberg will not go down the “Harvey” path together. Apparently, a conversation or two did take place but quickly evaporated for fears of Hanks’ already close association with Stewart. A Fox spokesperson confirmed Hank’s non-involvement noting that: “Tom Hanks has not read the script and speculation about him and this project has been inaccurate.” Phew.
So who will the rumor mills cast next as Elwood P. Dowd, the man with the imaginary rabbit friend? The folks at Movieline recently took a look at the talent pool and asked “Is There Any Actor Who Could Make Spielberg’s ‘Harvey’ Remake Interesting?” In short, yes there is. Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr., Adam Sandler and Sasha Baron Cohen felt like the most inspired choices to us and either of the four would definitely raise our interest levels. The article also tossed up a few left-of-field choices in Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner (wow, how far has he come?!) which, as they put it, are “so crazy it just might work.”
Also with anything Spielberg, Will Smith’s name of course has to be thrown into the hat but here’s hoping to otherwise. Then there’s also Spielberg’s most recent go-to man, Shia Labeouf. God, please no.
This could actually pan out to be quite the interesting showdown between Hollywood’s leading men. [BFDealMemo]