Paul Greengrass may direct The Deep Blue Good-by, delays his MLK film Memphis for at least a year

So last we heard about director Paul Greengrass, he and producer Scott Rudin were trying desperately to get the film MEMPHIS – about the final days of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life – up and running in the face of the slight snafu of not having a studio to back it. And now, unfortunately, it seems that too much time has passed to secure new financing for the film (the hope was to have MEMPHIS out in time for the 2012 MLK holiday weekend) as Deadline is reporting that Greengrass will push the project back for at least a year. Bummer.

So in the face of all that, what will the helmer’s next move be? Possibly the ‘Travis McGee’ novel THE DEEP BLUE GOOD-BY.

If this sounds familiar to you, that’s because director Oliver Stone was seriously considering taking the Travis McGee project about this time last year. The film would be an adaptation of the first in a series of twenty-one detective books by John D. MacDonald, which follows the character Travis McGee, “the Florida-based ‘salvage consultant’ as he reluctantly leaves his houseboat to go in search of a treasure hidden by a soldier after World War II.” According to Deadline, it appears that Leonardo DiCaprio, after all this time, is still attached to to play the role of McGee (he’s long been wanting to take the part), though it’s unclear if his commitment to Baz Luhrmann’s THE GREAT GATSBY will interfere.

Back to Greengrass, though. Should THE DEEP BLUE GOOD-BY not pan out, the director is apparently also looking at the Brian Helgeland-scripted HERE THERE BE MONSTERS, about a giant sea serpent (!). Whichever film happens next, expect MEMPHIS to be the follow-up.