Has Steven Spielberg Dropped Out of The Trial of the Chicago 7?

*Updates are below the story*

As most of you have heard, Steven Spielberg has been busy prepping a movie based on the Trail of the Chicago 7. For the last few months, rumors of a dream cast being put together to star in the Aaron Sorkin script have been online, with names like Will Smith for Bobby Seale, and Sacha Baron Cohen for Abbie Hoffman being leaked and talked about.

But now, after confirming it with two sources, I can definitely say that Steve Spielberg has decided to move on and will not be making the movie. I’m not sure if it’s due to the script not being good enough, or perhaps something better came along, I just know that he’s dropped out. Perhaps we’ll finally be getting that Lincoln movie.

But while we can all wonder the reason why, I think Devin might have had something to do with it. What I’m about to write might be a stretch…just go with me for a minute.

For awhile now, Devin’s (CHUD) been writing that he didn’t think Spielberg was the right person to take on the material, and it seems that Steven listened. In case you don’t know, many people say that Mr. Spielberg is a big reader of online movie sites and that he’ll email people at all hours of the night about certain articles. So perhaps, after reading what Devin had to say, he had a change of heart. We’ll never know, but I’d like to think that it did.

If anyone knows the real reason he dropped out, please email me. I’ll update the story.

Update 1 - Someone just emailed me and pointed out that Abraham Lincoln’s birthday is February 12th, 1809. So if Spielberg were to make a Lincoln movie and have it come out next year, it’d be in time for Lincoln’s 200th Birthday….

Update 2 – After I posted the story, I emailed a few people to let them know about it. One of them was Nikki Finke. While I know a few people in town, she knows a lot more executives and I knew she was going to confirm the story or shoot it down. Well, she’s posted her story and it says that Spielberg’s delayed “Chicago 7” due to the possibility of an actors strike. According to her sources, the script still needs more work and he’s worried about the actor’s strike and how it could effect the production. And since Spielberg had a lot of people on hold for the movie, he’s released them and they can now do other work. As most know, once this happens, it’s quite hard to put a project back together. Obviously things can change, but for now the project isn't happening.