Steven Spielberg exits “Chicago 7″
Steven Spielberg will no longer direct “The Trial Of The Chicago 7“, reports MovieWeb.
Sacha Baron Cohen had been persuaded by Spielberg to play political campaigner Abbie Hoffman in the film, which is based around eight Vietnam protesters accused of inciting a riot at the 1968 Democrat party convention.
Producer Walter F. Parkes explained that the director had quit the project due to the WGA strike and his commitment to the upcoming “Tintin” film.
“He is not going to do it,” Parkes noted. “He kind of had a moment of availability to do it, and the strike got in the way. We were unable to do the script work that Steven felt he needed and then, by the time the strike was over, he had already committed himself to begin production on “Tintin”.
‘The Trial Of The Chicago 7′: Steven Speilberg Has Dropped Out
It was confirmed by an online source over at Collider.com that Steven Speilberg has dropped out of the upcoming drama The Trial of the Chicago 7. The courtroom drama about activist Abbie Hoffman (rumored to be played by Sacha Baron Cohen) and his gang, scripted by Aaron Sorkin (Charlie Wilson’s War), was set to begin filming sometime this spring, but due to this news will surely be put on hold.
The question remains: Why did Speilberg drop out of the production? The theory in the Collider piece is that Speilberg, known to be an avid reader of internet talkbacks, had a change of heart after seeing that moviegoers that visit websites like FSR, Aintitcool, and others were unhappy with the Indiana Jones director taking on such a project.
I don’t know if I buy that. I don’t doubt that he would read that material on the internet, but c’mon, he’s Steven Fucking Speilberg. If anything, someone saying he isn’t right for the material would give a director who’s done it all a little fuel for his fire. Nothing feels better than proving someone wrong, and I think he would’ve stepped up (2 the streets) to the task. No, my guess is that of all the projects he’s linked to, this one seemed to be the one to get the axe. Continue Reading…
