# Spielberg's Next Film Will Be a Remake of "Harvey" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 3, 2009, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spielbergs-next-film-will-be-a-remake-of-harvey/505146 "2009-08-03T07:31:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spielbergs-next-film-will-be-a-remake-of-harvey/505146/61 "2009-08-05T11:47:34Z")
It was originally a play, and it’s not unreasonable for there to be different adaptations. When I was a teen-ager, I saw Bob Newhart do HARVEY (as a play) and he was fantastic. The Harry Anderson remake was dismal, in part because of poor direction – Harry was always in center of frame, which made Harvey clearly illusionary. The Jimmy Steward version has two-shots, lots of them, treating the invisible Harvey as a real character. I think Jimmy Stewart nailed it, and will always be Elwood, but I have no problem with other interpretations… so long as they’re true to the original and done well. The “Harvey is real” argument can only be made from the movie, not from the play. The play has (IIRC) a delicious ambiguity. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spielbergs-next-film-will-be-a-remake-of-harvey/505146/62 "2009-08-05T12:27:54Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > It was originally a play, and it’s not unreasonable for there to be different adaptations. When I was a teen-ager, I saw Bob Newhart do HARVEY (as a play) and he was fantastic. Was Newhart playing Elwood? He doesn’t really strike me as the wistfully pleasant type, more like the doctor who wants Elwood locked up. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spielbergs-next-film-will-be-a-remake-of-harvey/505146/63 "2009-08-05T13:22:53Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I don’t know - if you were approached by a talking anthropomorphic rabbit that no-one else can see, would you just take it in stride? > > I mean, consider the two options: > > 1. You’ve befriended an obscure creature from Celtic legend. > > 2. You’re insane. > > Now, apply Occam’s Razor. Which is more likely? For me, it’d be choice C: I should figure out what’s going on before deciding there can be only two options. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spielbergs-next-film-will-be-a-remake-of-harvey/505146/64 "2009-08-05T18:10:35Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Get Tom Hanks or don’t do it. [Hanks is out](http://weblogs.variety.com/bfdealmemo/2009/08/no-harvey-for-hanks.html) (or, never was in). Some scuttlebutt that Will Smith might get involved. Personally, the last time Spielberg did a warm-fuzzy remake, it resulted in the abysmal _Always_, so I’m hoping he just tables it and moves on… ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spielbergs-next-film-will-be-a-remake-of-harvey/505146/65 "2009-08-05T20:39:44Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > [Hanks is out](http://weblogs.variety.com/bfdealmemo/2009/08/no-harvey-for-hanks.html) (or, never was in). > > Some scuttlebutt that Will Smith might get involved. > > Personally, the last time Spielberg did a warm-fuzzy remake, it resulted in the abysmal _Always_, so I’m hoping he just tables it and moves on… Will Smith might be interesting… I could see it. How about Hugh Grant? ---
**Author:** ![Jerseyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Jerseyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerseyman)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spielbergs-next-film-will-be-a-remake-of-harvey/505146/66 "2009-08-05T20:47:57Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > The most likely would be an extremely delayed flashback from some dodgy acid taken back in my college days. But after that, the rabbit! After all, I meet both criteria to be befriended by one. 😃 Now there is an interesting take: yes, now you remember, you have seen Harvey before, and more than once. But something about him makes you wonder whether he really was a pure figment, or maybe the acid actually did open your mind to another plane of existence. Or maybe both are true - Harvey is in a way part of you, but has an independent identity as well, something like a projected schizophrenic sub-personality or conscience, as if your liver developed a personality of its own. Ray Bradbury did an interesting reversal of this in his Martian Chronicles where Martian hallucinations are visible to everybody, so when the Earthmen arrive and show their spacecraft they are still locked away with the rest because their hallucination is just the worst to get rid of that anybody has ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spielbergs-next-film-will-be-a-remake-of-harvey/505146/67 "2009-08-06T02:19:30Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > Will Smith might be interesting… I could see it. Elwood’s way too gentle a soul to ever say “Aw, HELL no!” ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spielbergs-next-film-will-be-a-remake-of-harvey/505146/68 "2009-12-07T20:30:58Z")
Stick a fork in it: [_Harvey_ is done](http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118012212.html?categoryid=1238&cs=1). ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spielbergs-next-film-will-be-a-remake-of-harvey/505146/69 "2009-12-07T20:38:24Z")
Maybe Spielberg wasn’t the best choice of director. Just think what a [true visionary](http://www.onlygoodmovies.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/jar-jar-binks.jpg) could have done. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spielbergs-next-film-will-be-a-remake-of-harvey/505146.md?page=3)