Off The Hopper

Variety reports that Steven Spielberg has walked away from his own remake of Harvey.

He had committed to the project, an adaptation of Mary Coyle Chase's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a man who befriends a six and a half foot tall invisible rabbit, back in August.

Fox and Dreamworks entered a co-financing deal and soundstages were put aside on the Fox lot for the project which was headed for an early 2010 start.

The difficulty apparently came with finding a star - Tom Hanks was his first choice but the actor turned it down

Robert Downey Jr. was then next in line to step into a role made famous by Jimmy Stewart but he and Spielberg never found themselves agreeing on Jonathan Tropper's script.

Spielberg has now called off his whole involvement in the project, leaving Fox to continue development on its own of the film for someone else.

Given the Classic status of the original 50's pic and this news I think the project should just quietly go away.