Joe Carnahan drops out of Umbra, Martin Campbell and Paul Haggis come in

Joe Carnahan (THE GREY, A-TEAM) has dropped out of the upcoming alien sci-fi flick UMBRA, according to Deadline. The director had been signed on to direct it since late 2010 with Bradley Cooper starring, picking it up from a Roger Donaldson/Nic Cage combo.

But the project already has a new director in Martin Campbell (GREEN LANTERN, CASINO ROYALE) with Paul Haggis (he of MILLION DOLLAR BABY and the singular worst Oscar-winning film of the last decade, CRASH) rewriting the script. In fact, just the description of the film, which now calls it a drama about “a business man who gets a mysterious package in the mail and gets caught up in a government conspiracy”, sounds much different than the alien thriller it was billed as two years ago.

Shame… Carnahan’s coming off some amazing buzz for THE GREY and it would have been interesting to see him try a new genre. But we’ll see what happens soon, as UMBRA is scheduled to start shooting this Spring.