It wasn't even a month ago that we reported Ryan Gosling would make his directorial debut with The Idolmaker a remake of the 1980 film about a music producer who turns a saxophone player into a star. Gosling was plenty busy at the time, as we pointed out then, with commitments to projects ranging from the small-scale crime drama The Place Beyond The Pines to a remake of Logan's Run. Now Gosling has apparently gotten the memo that he's a little too busy for his own good, and according to Deadline let MGM know that he won't be able to direct The Idolmaker after all.

The change may have happened because Bradley Cooper has confirmed he'll join Gosling in Pines, meaning that project can go ahead and shoot this summer under Gosling's Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance. From there Gosling will star along with Sean Penn and Josh Brolin in the period crime drama Gangster Quad, and at some point he does have to run away from the futuristic authorities in the Logan's Run remake. MGM is going to keep developing Idolmaker and hope that Gosling might return to work on it, but given how wide-ranging the guy's interests are who knows when he might come back. With his Cannes hit Drive coming at some point this year, and also a turn in the rom-com Crazy Stupid Love this summer, Gosling keeps bolstering his reputation as one of the most interesting actors working today. He's just not going to add "director" to that description any time soon.