According to Variety, director Steven Spielberg, known for such films as, well, if you don’t know his work you probably don’t belong here, has supposedly chosen his next project. Will it be a further exploration of the atrocities of war or another indictment of society’s ills and reliance on technology? No, its going to be movie about a 6½-foot-tall invisible rabbit called Harvey — an adaptation of the Mary Chase Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a man, played by Jimmy Stewart in the 1950 film version, and his invisible furry friend.
According to the article, Spielberg is ready to get back behind the camera and hopes to begin production on the film early next year. To facilitate this, the director will reportedly seek actors for the lead role, such as Tom Hanks and Will Smith, who can accommodate that schedule. Spielberg will produce the film with Don Gregory while Elizabeth Gabler and Carla Hacken will oversee it for Fox 2000, which acquired the rights last year.
Spielberg recently got a draft of the Harvey script, the first written by novelist Jonathan Tropper, and reportedly felt that while the source material is 65 years old, its themes are “timely, uplifting and relatable.” Not only that, he probably just wants to make a fun, funny, happy movie for a change. After all, how many times can you make a movie where people get gassed, burned, shot, preemptively put in prison, eaten by dinosaurs or otherwise have a really bad day?
