Ron Howard Forgets About The Alamo

By Michael Fleming

NEW YORK (Variety) - Director Ron Howard will not lead the charge on 'The Alamo,' because Disney is taking too long to get the prestige project into production.

Howard, off his Oscar win for 'A Beautiful Mind,' has begun concentrating on other film projects for his followup. However he and his Imagine Entertainment partner Brian Grazer may well continue as producers of the period Western.

The studio has already begun seeking a new director in hopes of keeping a late-year start date in place, as well as a cast that was to include Russell Crowe and Ethan Hawke.

Howard never formally signed a deal to direct the film, but such an accord was considered a fait accompli when word got out that he was scouting locations in Texas.

After winning all that Oscar hardware for 'A Beautiful Mind,' Howard and Grazer wanted to capitalize on the momentum and get a film started quickly; 'The Alamo' just went back to the shop for a rewrite by 'Traffic' scribe Stephen Gaghan.

Apparently, the cast will remain in place to see who Disney hires to replace Howard. That includes Crowe, who rearranged a very busy dance card to carve out a few weeks for 'The Alamo,' mainly because he wanted to reteam with its director.

Howard laid aside several high profile scripts to concentrate on 'The Alamo,' and there are numerous candidates for his next picture. One possibility is that he and Crowe will work together again on 'Cinderella Man,' a Universal/Imagine film about Depression-era boxer and folk hero Jim Braddock.

Howard has also shown interest in the fact-based Warner Bros. legal drama 'The Burial.' The studio was said to have once had Denzel Washington in its docket to play Mississippi personal injury lawyer Willie Gary, who represented a funeral parlor owner wronged by a conglomerate and helped win the plaintiff a $260 million verdict. The tale originated as a New Yorker article by Jonathan Harr, who wrote 'A Civil Action.'

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Best news I've had in weeks. Maybe this whole PC epic (presumably with Alec Baldwin as Sam Houston, apologizing to Mexico for stealing Texas) will be

known, and 'Tripoli', directed by Ridley Scott. He's in Baja Mexico now filming 'The Far Side of the World' by Peter Weir, which is tentatively scheduled for release in Summer 2003, so any of these projects may conflict with publicity for the Weir movie as well. I would doubt if Crowe could be involved now that Howard has evidently moved on, as his schedule just does not seem to allow time for even a small role in 'Alamo.' Kathy c

It said that Howard was upset over the delays.. but I don't see how he could possibly get another movie into production BEFORE the end of the year. Unless it's a quickie that's ready to go and I find it shocking that he would abandon the Alamo project for something like that after he seemed to already have his heart in it and spent so much time on it already.. And if he wants to do Cinderella Man, they won't get that started any sooner for sure because Crowe isn't available any sooner than he was going to be for The Alamo. OTOH, Howard may just be choosing to do Cinderella Man instead of Alamo (but stay on with Alamo as producer) because I don't think he can do both when Miramx/Universal is in such a hurry to get Cinderella Man done as soon as possible. Miramax agreed to let Crowe do Far Side first and delay CM, but I don't think they will put up with any more delays. Harvey gets impatient. And Ridley's film can wait until later next year. He has Matchstick Men to do for now.

I'm glad about this because Howard would just turn The Alamo into a work of fiction like he did with John Nash's life in 'A Beautiful Mind'.

dan

Austin Tx, Shiner Boch, Stubbs BBQ, TOFOG. Crowe will find the time.

Actually, I would consider his accuracy with Apollo 13 instead for comparison. Beautiful Mind is a much more unique and different sort of example of his work because it was never meant to be a precise biography or documentary of the man's life. They did already have some historians they were working with for the Alamo movie and were certainly prepared to do something accurate.. although a lot of details are just not known and still debated over to this day.

Hey all, check out the Alamo Movie site at: www.thealamofilm.com for the latest news and gossip about the film and its delays.