Hanks turns down Spielberg's 'Harvey'?

Rex Features

Tom Hanks has reportedly turned down the lead role in Steven Spielberg's remake of Harvey.

The director announced the modern-day update of the Mary Chase play, about a man who has a six-foot tall rabbit for an imaginary friend, as his next film earlier this week.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning work was previously adapted into a 1950 Jimmy Stewart vehicle and it has been suggested that Hanks was the frontrunner to take on the role for the remake, Variety says.

Insiders on the Fox-DreamWorks production have reportedly said that Spielberg and Hanks have already discussed the possiblity of Hanks's participation in the project. He is thought to have rejected the role of Elwood P. Dowd because he is already considered to be a modern-day Stewart and the part would only solidify the perception.

However, a rep for Fox said that speculation about Hanks and his supposed refusal to commit to the project has "been inaccurate".

Harvey made its Broadway debut in 1944 and enjoyed a five-year run before it was adapted for the cinema.