Adaptation of David Grann’s The Lost City of Z has now lost Brad Pitt

It’s been nearly two years since we last reported any movement on the adaptation of New Yorker writer David Grann’s THE LOST CITY OF Z, a film which had Brad Pitt attached to both produce and star. Well, he may still be producing, but according to Vulture now, he’s definitely not going to be starring.

Pitt would have played British soldier Col. Percy Fawcett who led a 1925 expedition into the Amazon forest only to suddenly vanish while seeking an ancient civilization called ‘Z’. As our own Mike Sampson points out in the Extra Tidbit of our last report, the real-life Col. Fawcett was one of the inspirations for the character of Indiana Jones.

So why exactly did Pitt depart? Vulture explains: “The issue was an impasse with Paramount over compensation for Lost City’s director James Gray (The Yards, We Own the Night).” Seeing as how Z has been retardedly slow in getting out of development, it makes sense now why Pitt would suddenly jump on the Andrew Dominik adaptation COOGAN’S TRADE.