During the course of recent promotions for The Mist, Frank Darabont has been very happy to talk up his adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451. It’s something Darabont has wanted to do for a long time, and the project finally seemed to be on track. Tom Hanks seemed set to star, and in doing so provide that economic incentive studios just love.

Now MTV is reporting that Hanks has dropped out, citing either ‘The Commitments’ or ‘other commitments’. Since I doubt that a quasi-fictional Irish band can keep one of the biggest actors in the world from doing anything, it must be the latter.

Darabont is evidently still keen on doing the film (“I see this movie so clearly in my head. It’s flowing in my veins,” he told MTV) but needs someone to replace Hanks, like now. “It needs to be somebody like [Hanks] who has the ability to trigger a greenlight but is also the right guy for the part. It’s a narrow target. It’s a short list of people.”

Guess that doesn’t rule out Kim Coates, then.