Richard Linklater abandons The Rosie Project due to Jennifer Lawrence's exit

The Rosie Project suffered a major blow yesterday when it was announced that leading lady Jennifer Lawrence had decided to bow out of the project. However, the film now finds itself in even more tempestuous waters, with THR reporting that director Richard Linklater has followed Lawrence out of the exit door.

According to the report, Linklater was sold on the project by the opportunity to work with Lawrence, and as soon as she dropped out he made his excuses. As for the reasoning behind Lawrence’s departure, it had initially been assumed it was a direct result of her signing on for Darren Aronofsky’s new indie flick, but apparently it’s more a case of her wanting a break after a series of gruelling back to back shoots.

All of which is pretty bad news for Sony, who are now back at square one with their adaptation of the hit novel by Graeme Simsion. The story follows a socially inept geneticist attempting to create a survey for the perfect mate when he meets the beautiful Rosie, who seems to blow all his research out of the water. Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber have adapted the book into a screenplay, but with no release date confirmed, no leading lady and now no director, who knows when we will be seeing this one in the cinema.