The Allan Loeb-scripted drama COLLATERAL BEAUTY just can't catch a break. First the planned movie lost its leading man, then Rooney Mara left the project last month, and now New Line is on the hunt for a new director, as Alfonso Gomez-Rejon has exited the film due to (what else?) creative differences with the studio.
Sources tell Variety that the ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL filmmaker "felt as though he was directing an entirely different project than the one he had signed up for." Gomez-Rejon will likely move on to the George Westinghouse vs Thomas Edison flick THE CURRENT WAR (which may star Benedict Cumberbatch and Jake Gyllenhaal), however he's also set to direct Paramount's A FOREIGNER.
Although Will Smith is still attached to star, New Line may have to start from scratch since production was scheduled to begin next month. But insiders tell THR that the studio "is still very hot on the project and will make finding a new director for the film a priority." COLLATERAL BEAUTY follows "a New York advertising executive who experiences a deep personal tragedy. His colleagues devise an unconventional means of breaking him out of his depression, which works, but not in a way that anyone imagined." Who do you think should take over for Alfonso Gomez-Rejon?