Deadline are reporting that director Stephen Daldry has left the screen adaptation of hit stage show Wicked.

The film has been in development since at least 2016, but due to scheduling conflicts and other problems it is still in pre-production hell.

The movie was originally scheduled for release on December 20th 2019, ironically the same release date as Cats, another stage to screen adaption which was hit with a very harsh critical panning.

Universal, who own the screen rights, will still go ahead with the adaptation, but they wanted to proceed faster than Daldry was moving ahead with development, and as Deadline reports there is currently no sound stage in the UK free for production to start, and the director was keen to film in England.

There is no need to worry as there are a number of high profile directors ready to take over, including Steven Spielberg who is keen to adapt another stage show after he directed West Side Story, which has been delayed until December 2021.

Source Deadline.