Bunny Lake Is Dead

Joe Carnahan has posted to his blog about the recent departure of Reese Witherspoon from Bunny Lake is Missing, and it sounds to me that he's off the film. Make your own mind up:

Scuttlebutt: How about NOTHING. How about a situation where the press tries to stir it up. These things happen. Movies go away every day. Reese is dealing with a lot of stuff in her life. So am I. We were running up against it as far as time for prep and shooting and scripting, etc. I had already commited to White Jazz and the longer we stretched Bunny the more in jeopardy the WJ schedule became. And there was just no way I could let that happen. I need a nice extended prep period for that flick.

And now I've got it.

That's it guys. I wish there were some truly tasty bits of gossip but there just aren't. Sorry.

Onward and upward y'all! White Jazz awaits.

I'm prepared to bet the eventual Bunny Lake film, from a different director, is better than White Jazz.

Will Reese come back onboard for a different director? I think she might, though not any time soon, maybe.

Bunny Lake Is Rescued?

Reese Witherspoon has quit Joe Carnahan's remake of Bunny Lake is Missing. The film's start date is fixed, leaving the producers - well, those that remain, as Reese was amongst their ranks initially - trying to find a replacement.

I think this might save the film. What do I mean? Possibly not what you expect. I like Reese just fine. But I think this might crash the project, leaving it without a director. As far as I can tell, the script by Doug Wright is very, very strong, and deserves a better man than Carnahan. He can go off and do White Jazz which is highly unlikely to have such a good script.

Soderbergh's the man for the Bunny job. Here's hoping it lands on his desk soon.

In the meantime, let's all enjoy the DVD of Otto Preminger's original Bunny Lake is Missing one more time - even if, for some reason, the incredible Saul Bass poster art isn't used on the disc's cover. D'oh!