Steven Spielberg to direct Harvey

Steven Spielberg handed The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn over to Peter Jackson in March after directing 32 days of performance-capture filming. Jackson will be working with WETA to complete all the effects, and Spielberg will probably be checking in now and again to see how it’s going. If the first Tintin film does well then Peter Jackson will be taking over directing duties for the second film, which gives Spielberg a bit of time to direct a few more movies before they both co-direct the third film (if all goes to according plan). So, what will Spielberg be directing next?

From Variety:

Steven Spielberg has committed to direct, as his next film, “Harvey,” an adaptation of the Mary Chase Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a man — played by Jimmy Stewart in the 1950 film version — who befriends a 6½-foot-tall invisible rabbit.

Spielberg aims to begin production early next year, so the helmer is expected to reach out to a handful of top stars, most notably Tom Hanks and Will Smith, to find someone whose availability meshes with the planned start dates.

Harvey is the story of an amiable eccentric, Elwood P. Dowd, and his friendship with a six and a half feet tall invisible rabbit and how this affects every member of his family and his community. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944, and played on Broadway for 1,775 performances between 1944 and 1949. It later was adapted for the 1950 Universal film that starred Jimmy Stewart and Josephine Hull.

I am not familiar with Harvey and his rabbit friend, and would have preferred it if Spielberg worked on Lincoln with Liam Neeson, however there hasn’t been a Steven Spielberg film that I have disliked, so I am looking forward to seeing what he can do with this.