Paul Greengrass Exits Aaron Sorkin's 'The Trial of the Chicago 7'

Aaron Sorkin has had a world of trouble trying to get his The Trial of the Chicago 7 off the ground, but it has been in various stages of development turmoil for years. Steven Spielberg had been set to direct the film based on Sorkin's script back in 2006, attracting some pretty big names (Will Smith for one) in the process. That fell through and it languished for awhile, only to resurface a couple of months ago with Paul Greengrass taking over the director's chair. Unfortunately it's back to square one as Greengrass has now departed the project.

According to Variety, Greengrass and Dreamworks failed to reach an agreement on the budget, with the studio hoping to keep costs below $30M. Greengrass turned in an assessment of more than $40M, and rather than meet in the middle they just decided to go separate ways. Kind of odd to see a potentially major project collapse over such a small amount, but this was never going to be a blockbuster film and maybe that $10M would have been a big deal. The film would have followed the trial of seven defendants in the wake of anti-war protests during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago

As for what Greengrass will do next, that's anyone's guess. He'll be doing the press rounds for Captain Phillips in the immediate future, and after that it may finally be time to get moving on Martin Luther King Jr. biopic Memphis, which has Forest Whitaker in the lead.