Hollywood’s new “Spider-Man” has swung out of Warren Beatty’s directorial comeback.
Andrew Garfield has dropped out of the planned Howard Hughes biopic that would mark Beatty’s first project as a director in 13 years. The move has now set the drama back while Beatty finds a replacement.
Beatty had been putting together a blockbuster cast for the film, and met with “everyone in town” for roles early summer, including Garfield, Shia LaBeouf, Jack Nicholson, Evan Rachel Wood and Rooney Mara.
Beatty subsequently had Garfield and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” star Mara “locked and loaded” this month as the leads for his movie, according to a source.
But Garfield’s deal fell through when the Beatty film couldn’t get its scheduling together, possibly interfering with Garfield’s upcoming Broadway debut, sources said.
“They’re losing Andrew,” said a Hollywood source. “He’s jumping ship. Now it’s back to the drawing board [for casting].
“Warren’s movie couldn’t get it’s start date together, and was taking a long time to get going,” added the source.
“The Social Network” star Garfield is headed to the Great White Way to star in “Death of a Salesman,” produced by Scott Rudin and also starring Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Further sources close to Garfield, currently dating fellow in-demand Hollywood young star Emma Stone, say he takes his craft seriously and values serious roles in the theater.
Beatty’s Hughes film is his first directorial project since 1998 when he was behind the camera for the political satire “Bulworth.”
He also wrote and is starring in the movie as an older version of the tycoon and aviator. Garfield would have played Hughes as a younger man. A source close to Garfield said, “Not true — he had not committed to (the) project.” Reps for Beatty didn’t get back to us by press time.