Spielberg's Trial Delayed

And here you probably thought we were done with strikes for the year.

by | February 25, 2008 | Comments

After he hands Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull over to millions of ecstatic moviegoers, it looks like Steven Spielberg might be headed for a well-deserved vacation.

Entertainment Weekly reports that what was supposed to be Spielberg’s next film, The Trial of the Chicago 7, has been pushed back from its scheduled April start. According to the article, although Chicago “still may be” Spielberg’s next project, and is “furthest along” of everything on his docket, it was derailed by — wouldn’t you know it — strike concerns. From the article:

According to Spielberg’s longtime spokesman, Marvin Levy…the script, written by Aaron Sorkin, needs work, and the 100-day writers’ strike delayed the project so long that it couldn’t be ready for an April start date. One source tells EW.com that research staff working on the film has been let go.

Compounding these problems, according to Deadline Hollywood Daily, are fears of a summer strike by the Screen Actors Guild; an unnamed “insider” told the site that Trial is “a defacto casualty” of uncertainty over the June expiration date of the SAG contract.

Still, strike or no strike, Trial or no Trial, we’ll still be in line with all the fedora-wearing, bullwhip-sporting nerds on May 22. Everything else will sort itself out, right?

Source: Entertainment Weekly
Source: Deadline Hollywood Daily