Steven Spielberg is no longer attached to Bradley Cooper’s American Sniper, Variety reports. Spielberg was poised to direct Cooper in the Iraq War drama until sometime last week, when stories began to emerge that DreamWorks and Spielberg had fallen out of love with the project, which was meant to be his follow-up to Lincoln. Two DreamWorks spokespeople denied the rumors to Variety, but they’ve now turned out to be true.
Variety reports that the whole thing may have fallen apart in the deal-making process or that another project may have caught Spielberg’s fickle interest. DreamWorks is close to acquiring the rights to The Grapes Of Wrath, and Spielberg has also been circling something called Robopocalypse. Spielberg has also just finished giving notes on the latest draft of Jurassic Park 4.
It’s not really clear what’s going to happen with the film now, especially since Cooper’s schedule isn’t exactly wide-open these days.