Latest Spielberg News

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [imdb]opens next week, to what is sure to be the biggest grossing film of the year. The new poster art above, from poster art legend, Drew Struzan, adorns my wall with pride. I suggest you check out his website, in which a portfolio of his earlier work can be found. Classic poster art from Back to the Future, Blade Runner, Stars Wars series are there to gaze. He also has a collection of his movie poster art available in an awesome book that you can get pretty much anywhere, or on Amazon.com.

From early reports, it's been called the best Indy sequel. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade being my favorite film, I invite and revile the idea. On a surface level, I should automatically choose Last Crusade, regardless of having not seen the fourth film, simply on the basis of who's cast. Hands down everyone on the planet should say Sean Connery over Shia LaBeouf, that is if you have any sort of sense of culture or talent or human decency. At the same time I'm not opposed to seeing an even better film, even if it has hole-digging transforming even stevens over Bond. James Bond. After Indy 4 opens, Spielberg has a couple of productions he has in the works, all of which are extremely exciting.

His next project makes my forehead veins burst in excitement; Tintin [imdb]. The cartoon Belgium-born reporter that globe trots the world and adventures with his dog Snowy in tow, is going to be featured in three different 3D animation films, based on the original comics that Belgian artist Hergé penned and drew over the last century. According to cinema.com, "He plans a trilogy based on six of the classic books including Red Rackham's Treasure and The Blue Lotus reports French magazine Capital." I haven't seen that those stories in particular have been confirmed anywhere else, only time will tell.

Variety (full article) reported in detail last year,
"Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are teaming to direct and produce three back-to-back features based on Georges Remi's beloved Belgian comic-strip hero Tintin for DreamWorks. [The films] will be produced in full digital 3-D using performance capture technology."

"Spielberg and Jackson have selected three stories from Remi's "The Adventures of Tintin" series, which encompassed 23 books published between 1929 and 1976. The series still attracts 2 million new fans a year."

"Jackson said WETA will stay true to Remi's original designs in bringing the cast of Tintin to life, but that the characters won't look cartoonish."

"Instead," Jackson said, "we're making them look photorealistic; the fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people — but real Herge people!"

"DreamWorks bought the film rights from Herge Studios in Brussels, Belgium. Company is led by prexy Fanny Rodwell, Remi's wife when he died in 1983."

""We want Tintin's adventures to have the reality of a live-action film, and yet Peter and I felt that shooting them in a traditional live-action format would simply not honor the distinctive look of the characters and world that Herge created," Spielberg continued."

After Tintin, Speilberg plans to immediately start on Lincoln [imdb]."Director Steven Spielberg is planning a biopic of former U.S. president Abraham Lincoln to tie in with the 200th anniversary of his birth, reports said Monday, according to AFP. The iconic director revealed he would produce the film about Lincoln’s life, expected to start shooting in 2009.

"I want to start ‘Lincoln’ in early 2009, because it’s Lincoln’s 200th anniversary," Steven Spielberg explained.

The Civil War epic will star Liam Neelson, who agreed to play the fallen president three years ago. [source eNews]


A rumored all-star cast fills Spielberg's next listed production, The Trial of the Chicago 7 [imdb], Will Smith and Kevin Spacey on top billing. Not a lot is known about it, since it's still very much in the pre-production stage, re-writes being on the top of the list of things to do. But, a synopsis is available:

"During the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, there were massive demonstrations against the Vietnam War, which was reaching its peak. When a curfew was finally instated, this led to even further protests, eventually leading to a police riot. Following this, seven of the demonstrators (Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Lee Weiner, and David Dellinger) were tried for conspiracy. This is the story of the trial that followed."

A more serious Spielberg film that I gladly welcome. Munich and Schindler's List are definitely some of my favorite Spielberg that touch me in a significant, albeit different way than E.T. did. Although even picking my "favorite" Spielberg movies is a superfluous question, I like all Spielberg movies, a lot. Lots of exciting projects from one of the world's most prestigious and successful directors. It's going to be a good rest of the decade.