Ryan Gosling a little too busy to make directorial debut on Idolmaker

Last month came reports out of the Cannes Film Festival that Ryan Gosling would make his directorial debut on a remake of the 1980 film THE IDOLMAKER. It seemed like an odd choice for the notoriously picky Gosling to remake an otherwise schlocky 80s movie about the life of a rock music promoter. Just a few weeks after the announcement, Gosling perhaps realized himself it was an odd choice and has dropped out of the project.

Gosling has a number of starring roles in the works including A PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, which starts filming in July, and GANGSTER SQUAD, the Warner Bros. crime-drama with Sean Penn and Josh Brolin co-starring. It’s likely that MGM wanted to get started on IDOLMAKER sooner than Gosling could commit and Gosling wasn’t interested enough to force MGM to wait.

Gosling is just starting to hit his stride as a studio actor after a number of indie roles (he’s got a supporting role in a Steve Carell comedy this summer) and has his first attempt at an action role, DRIVE, set for release later this year. He’s also in talks to reteam with DRIVE director Nicolas Winding-Refn on a remake of LOGAN’S RUN.

There’ll be plenty of time for Gosling to segue to directing (he’s only 30) so no need to rush things now while his acting career is firing on all cylinders.