For the past few months, it looked like Steven Spielberg was going to follow up the massive success of 'Lincoln' with 'American Sniper,' a war film about the career of slain Navy SEAL Chris Kyle. Despite plenty of momentum and the starpower of Bradley Cooper in the lead role, Spielberg, along with production company DreamWorks, has dropped the project and vanished to wherever he goes when he needs to decide what movie he wants to direct next.

The scoop comes from Deadline, who reports that Spielberg's departure has to do with the acclaimed filmmaker being unable to work around budget constraints. In other words, Warner Bros. didn't want to give the Oscar-winning director of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' and 'Saving Private Ryan' enough money to do what he wanted. Granted, we're just shouting from the outside looking in, but poor call there, guys. Spielberg's departure aside, 'American Sniper' remains very much alive, with Cooper still attached in the lead role and as a producer. And now, the hunt for a new filmmaker begins.

For a director with a thousand options at his fingertips, Spielberg sure has been dropping a lot of movies recently. He abandoned the sci-fi epic 'Interstellar,' which was snatched up by Christopher Nolan. He dropped out of the Drew Goddard-penned 'Robopocalypse.' Plus, his remake of 'Harvey' failed to materialize at the last second.

In other words, we have no idea what the heck is going on with Spielberg or what he'll do next. But we can wait. After all, a Spielberg movie is usually worth the time.

More From ScreenCrush