Steven Spielberg

[jazzo]

First time in the theatre, I loathed The Terminal. Somehow, somewhere along the way, showing it to my kids after they requested more Spielberg at a young age, its whimsical charms grew on me. I can’t explain what changed. Maybe it was me, not the film.

I’m actually quite fond of it now, even though no human character in the film acts in any recognizably human fashion. But it all makes sense to me if I think of it as Spielberg’s Capra picture.

But, yes, Catch Me If You Can is twenty times the movie.

[captveg]

Wondering when a lot of that 90s and 00s output is going to get upgraded on home media, it's about time.

The 90s Spielberg films are mostly available on 4K UHD (Amistad is the lone unreleased upgrade from that decade), but the 2001-2016 era is definitely the largest 4K UHD gap for Spielberg, with only Indy 4 and War of the Worlds being available of 12 films. I've been hoping September 5 would encourage Universal to at least upgrade Munich. Of course, when it comes to Spielberg it's highly unlikely any of his films would be licensed to 3rd party labels; however, on the positive side I imagine if he wants a film released the relevant studio will jump at it.

[beamish14]

Someone on eBay is selling an unproduced screenplay that Spielberg apparently wrote in collaboration with Family Ties /Spin City creator Gary David Goldberg in 1980. A posted excerpt begins with a monologue from “Marty Scorsese” on film

[hearthesilence]

IIRC Joseph McBride discusses it in his biography on Spielberg.

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Ringer with more details:

As early as 1978, on the heels of Close Encounters, Spielberg told American Cinematographer that he wanted to make a musical—and indeed while he was making Raiders, Spielberg worked to develop what would’ve been his first. Called Reel to Reel, it was a meta-memoir story about a young filmmaker trying to make his first film: a science-fiction musical. Gary David Goldberg, a writer from The Bob Newhart Show, worked on the script in Spielberg’s hotel, and producer Howard Kazanjian said Spielberg was constantly talking about it as they drove to and from location in Europe. Spielberg even flew back to Hollywood during production to pitch it to Sid Sheinberg, the Universal Studios president who launched his career (and had his own avatar in the script).

But Sheinberg wasn’t interested, and “when Sid said no on this musical,” Kazanjian told [Joseph] McBride, “Steven kinda said, ‘OK, I’ll quickly do this other little picture, E.T., to get my obligation out of the way.’ I think that’s why he really did it, just to fulfill that last-picture deal with Sid.” (In 1983, Reel to Reel was announced as a Michael Cimino film, produced by Spielberg for Columbia, but that never happened. Goldberg told the Los Angeles Times in 1990 that the script was never up to snuff, and that “it became darker under Michael.”

[beamish14]

IIRC Joseph McBride discusses it in his biography on Spielberg.

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Ringer with more details:

As early as 1978, on the heels of Close Encounters, Spielberg told American Cinematographer that he wanted to make a musical—and indeed while he was making Raiders, Spielberg worked to develop what would’ve been his first. Called Reel to Reel, it was a meta-memoir story about a young filmmaker trying to make his first film: a science-fiction musical. Gary David Goldberg, a writer from The Bob Newhart Show, worked on the script in Spielberg’s hotel, and producer Howard Kazanjian said Spielberg was constantly talking about it as they drove to and from location in Europe. Spielberg even flew back to Hollywood during production to pitch it to Sid Sheinberg, the Universal Studios president who launched his career (and had his own avatar in the script).

But Sheinberg wasn’t interested, and “when Sid said no on this musical,” Kazanjian told [Joseph] McBride, “Steven kinda said, ‘OK, I’ll quickly do this other little picture, E.T., to get my obligation out of the way.’ I think that’s why he really did it, just to fulfill that last-picture deal with Sid.” (In 1983, Reel to Reel was announced as a Michael Cimino film, produced by Spielberg for Columbia, but that never happened. Goldberg told the Los Angeles Times in 1990 that the script was never up to snuff, and that “it became darker under Michael.”

Very interesting. I believe I read the McBride book many years ago, but I didn’t recall any of this. Cimino’s biography has zero mention of it