HOLLYWOOD - Ron Howard may remember The Alamo, but he isn't going to direct a movie about the famed Texas battle.Director Howard, hot off his multiple Oscar wins for A Beautiful Mind, was looking at the Disney project for his next venture. The studio, however, is having difficulty jump starting the production, and Howard has decided to move on. He and partner Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment will most likely still be Alamo's producers.
Howard never officially signed an agreement with Disney, but Variety reports that insiders believed it was a done deal when the word was out the director was scouting locations in Texas.
Disney is now reportedly scrambling to find a new director so it can keep the high-profile cast already attached, including Russell Crowe and Ethan Hawke, as well as keep a late-year start date in place.
Howard has now turned his eye toward other projects, including Cinderella Man--about the Depression-era boxer and folk hero Jim Braddock, which may also reteam him with Crowe--andThe Burial, a film about a lawyer's fight for a funeral parlor owner, with Denzel Washington.