George Clooney Drops Off 'White Jazz'
Damn, Carnahan is having some trouble
Okay, so first Joe Carnahan loses Chris Pine who was supposed to star as Junior Stemmons in Carnahan's White Jazz alongside George Clooney. Pine decided taking the role as Captain James T. Kirk in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot was a better career move and who could blame him. However, there seems to be even more trouble on the Jazz-y front as Entertainment Weekly is now reporting that Clooney has also dropped off the project.
This comes as quite the surprising news, but Carnahan doesn't seem detered as he has posted this on his blog:
Rough weekend. I had a bad feeling after they pushed 'Leatherheads' to April because of the extensive post on that film that something was going to have to give. Also, George is neck deep in the Coen bros. film at the moment and trying to do 'Michael Clayton' press which will likely carry over into Awards season…SO…they wanted to see about pushing White Jazz back, which I really don't want to do. I've been waiting awhile to make this one and I wasn't content to sit on my hands.
Right now, (actually it began on friday) we're in the process of trying to plug a guy into this movie that, if it works, would be pretty f*cking amazing. No, INCREDIBLY f*cking amazing, so we'll see what happens.
No tears kids. This is the business. It happens all the time and you've got to have the balls and the ability to push past in spite of these setbacks.
"It just simply came down to scheduling," says Clooney's producing partner, Grant Heslov, to Entertainment Weekly. "George continues to believe in the project and in Joe."
Belief or not, the movie now sits without a cast member of any sort as Carnahan tries to fill the role. Clooney was to play a dirty LAPD vice squad lieutenant whose mastery at skirting the rules gets tested when he's set up by his crooked bosses to be the fall guy for a murder.
If Carnahan is indeed getting ready to cast someone new I expect we will hear news shortly as he is out scouting locations in Los Angeles and production is expected to begin in mid-January.
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This could have been Clooney's break through role in Hollywood. I've been hearing the screenplay is absolutely fantastic and Michael Mathew Carnahan – who was interviewed here – seemed excited at the aspect of George playing the role. This is a damn shame.
I can't help but agree with you, I was really excited to see Clooney in this role. It sounds like Joe really wants to get this movie in the can and then get Killing Pablo going, and as much as I am excited about seeing this movie made I almost wish he would put it off until after Pablo if that would mean keeping Clooney.
Pablo has been a dream film for Carnahan and sometimes they can, and speaking strictly by such an example as "Alexander", ruin you. Doing Pablo before Jazz would seem like a waste considering Stone/Fuqua are also trying to make a film about him. Awkward, ain't it?
Pablo would definetely seem rushed if he didn't before Jazz and I really want to see Jazz.