|
||||||
|
||||||
Over his years as director and producer, Spielberg has explored a large variety of subjects in his films. During his early years, his sci-fi and adventure films were often seen as the archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster film-making. In recent years he has tackled emotionally powerful issues, such as the Holocaust, slavery, war, and terrorism.
Early lifeSteven Allan Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to Arnold and Leah Spielberg, née Posner. (Leah later remarried, and took on the name Leah Adler.) He has three younger sisters. His last name comes from the name of the Austrian city where his Hungarian Jewish ancestors lived in 17th century: Spielberg. Spielberg spent much of his childhood in several places as his family often moved because of his father's job, as a computer engineer. Spielberg lived in Camden, New Jersey, Haddon Township, New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona and Saratoga, California. The first film Spielberg ever saw was Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth.[3] Spielberg grew up making movies from an early age. In a interview with the American Film Institute Spielberg recalls his earliest movie making memory - his enjoyment of crashing his toy trains into each other. To avoid making his father angry about repairing the trains he chose to film the crash at the points where the trains met. Throughout his early teens, he made other amateur 8 mm "adventure" movies with his friends, the first of which he shot at the Pinnacle Peak Patio restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona. He charged admission to his home movies (which involved the wrecks he staged with his Lionel train set) while his sister sold the popcorn. At the age of 13, Spielberg won a prize for a 40-minute war movie he titled Escape to Nowhere.[3]
After his parents divorced he moved to California with his father. His three sisters and mother remained in Arizona. Subsequently he graduated from Saratoga High School in Saratoga, California in 1965. On attending Saratoga High School, he said that it was the "worst experience" of his life and "hell on Earth".[5] Spielberg was given the nickname "Spielbug"[3] During this time Spielberg became an Eagle Scout and recipient of the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), as he developed the requirements for the Boy Scout Cinematography merit badge.[6] In later life, he resigned from the national board of BSA after he had been admitted (because of his disapproval regarding the BSA's anti-homosexuality stance).[7] After moving to California he applied to attend film school at UCLA and University of Southern California's School of Cinema-Television three separate times but was unsuccessful (though USC awarded Spielberg an honorary degree in 1994 and in 1996 he became a trustee of the University). Reasons for his failure to gain entry were based on his "C" grade average. He then attended California State University, Long Beach at the behest of his parents who wanted him to gain a degree and personally to avoid the possibility of the draft for Vietnam.[3] Spielberg once joked that his movie career began the day that he decided to jump off a tour bus at Universal Studios in Hollywood and wandered around the disused film lots. There have been many alternate versions of that story. However his actual career began, when he returned to Universal studios as an unpaid, three-day-a-week intern and guest of the editing department.[8] While attending college at Long Beach State in the 1960s, Spielberg also became member of Theta Chi Fraternity. In 2002, thirty-five years after starting college, Spielberg finished his degree via independent projects at CSULB, and was awarded a B.A. in Film Production and Electronic Arts with an option in Film/Video Production.[9] Fraternity brothers often tell stories of Spielberg running around with a movie camera making short films. Once as an intern and guest of Universal Studios, Spielberg made his first short film for theatrical release, creating Amblin', in 1968, at the age of twenty-one. This movie, only 24 minutes long, led to his becoming the youngest director ever to be signed to a long-term deal with a major Hollywood studio (Universal) after Sid Sheinberg, then the vice-president of production for Universals' TV arm saw the film. In later life Spielberg's own production company, Amblin Entertainment, was named after that film. He then dropped out of Long Beach State in 1969 to take the television director contract at Universal Studios and began his career as a professional director. Early career (1968–1975)His first professional TV job came when he was hired to do one of the segments for the pilot episode of Night Gallery. The segment, Eyes, starred Joan Crawford, and she and Spielberg were reportedly close friends until her death. The episode is unusual in his body of work, in that the camerawork is more highly stylized than his later, more "mature" films. After this, and an episode of Marcus Welby M.D., Spielberg got his first feature-length assignment: an episode of Name of the Game called "L.A. 2017". This episode played to his interests in futuristic science fiction, and Universal first began to take note of his talents. He did another segment on Night Gallery (some people claim that he also directed a short five-minute segment called "A Matter of Semantics" when the credited director had to back out for unknown reasons, but this has never been confirmed), and did some work for shows such as Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law and The Psychiatrist before landing the first series episode of Columbo (previous "episodes" were actually TV movies). DuelBased on the strength of his work, Universal signed Spielberg to do three TV movies. The first was a Richard Matheson adaptation called Duel. First broadcast in 1971, the protagonist played by Dennis Weaver is pursued by a monstrous tanker truck piloted by a faceless driver who tries to run his small Valiant off the road. It was immediately recognized as a taut, well-made thriller, and cemented Spielberg's emerging reputation. In later interviews, Spielberg said that tale of being stalked by a monster would inspire his work with Jaws. Realizing what they had, Universal would not release Spielberg to CBS, and insisted he fulfill the contract. In 1972, he directed a TV movie called Something Evil, which was made and released to capitalize on the popularity of The Exorcist, then a major best-selling book which had not yet been released as a movie. Spielberg is said to be quite disappointed with the film, which he never regarded as more than a knock-off. He fulfilled his contract by directing the TV movie length pilot of a show called Savage, starring Martin Landau. Though the series was not picked up, the movie was shown on TV in 1973, and is occasionally re-run, usually highlighting Spielberg's participation. The Sugarland ExpressImage:Jaws A.jpg Jaws helped launch Spielberg's career as a successful hollywood director Spielberg's debut theatrical feature film was The Sugarland Express, based on the true story of a married couple who lead the Texas police on a highway chase as they embark on a journey to regain custody of their baby. In the process they become part of a notable police chase. Spielberg's use of cinematography to track the police chase earned the film warm reviews. The Hollywood Reporter stated that "a major new director is on the horizon".[10] The film however failed to do well at the box office and received a limited release. A few years after, Spielberg later remarked "if I had to do it all over again I would make it in a completely different fashion."[11] Nevertheless his studio producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown were prepared to offer Spielberg a more ambitious directing assignment with Jaws. JawsSpielberg's next film was Jaws, a horror film based on the Peter Benchley novel starring Roy Scheider about a killer shark that attacks people off the coast of a New England isle community. Jaws won three Academy Awards (for editing, original score and sound), and grossed over USD$100 million at the box office, setting the domestic record for box office gross and leading to what the press described as "Jawsmania".[12] It has been said that Steven Spielberg often referred to the mechanical shark as "the fat man in the ocean - because it eats everything." Jaws is widely seen as the film that launched Spielbergs career to the international level, making him a household name, as well as one of Americas youngest multi-millionaires. Because of its box office record, the film would allow Spielberg a great degree of autonomy over some of his future projects.[13] It was also nominated for Best Picture and featured Spielberg's first of three collaborations with actor Richard Dreyfuss. To this day, Spielberg maintains that Jaws was the hardest film he ever had to make.[14] He would decline offers to direct its sequel by using his new influence to pursue more personal projects. The King Of Blockbuster (1975–1993)Close Encounters of the Third KindRejecting offers to direct Jaws 2, Spielberg and actor Richard Dreyfuss re-convened to work on a pet project Spielberg had had in mind since his youth: a film about UFOs, which became Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). The film remains a cult sci-fi classic and has been highly influential ever since. This is one of the rare movies that Spielberg both wrote and directed. A hit at the box office, the film also gained Spielberg his first Best Director nomination from the Academy and was nominated for six other Academy Awards, taking home Oscars in two (Cinematography—Vilmos Zsigmond, and a Special Achievement Award for Sound Effects Editing—Frank E. Warner). According to his biographer, Joseph Mcbride, the film was an important point in Spielberg's career, as it became his second blockbuster, securing his rise as one of the most important directors in contemporary cinema. 1941The success Spielberg was beginning to enjoy, as well as his eventual tendency to make films with wide mainstream and commercial appeal, also subjected him to disdain in critical circles by film reviewers. For example, Spielberg's next film was 1941, a big-budgeted World War II farce set in L.A. days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Spielberg cast three top stars from Saturday Night Live, Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi and John Candy along with other all-stars (e.g. Ned Beatty, Warren Oates and Robert Stack). An exercise in excess, the film provided just the ammunition cynical critics would require to take down the young director. The film flopped with both audiences and critics alike and Spielberg looks back at the film disdainfully, describing that he "needed to go to a Betty Ford clinic for self-indulgent directors".[15] In the end it did make a small profit at the box office, and eventually found its audience in television showings. Expanded versions of 1941 have been shown on network television and later on Laserdisc and DVD. It has earned a cult status partly because of Spielberg's eventual fame and partly because of its camp reputation. During that same time period, in 1980 Spielberg had a cameo role as the Cook County assessor in the last minutes of the film The Blues Brothers, again spending time with Aykroyd, Belushi and Candy. Raiders of the Lost ArkIn need of redemption for 1941's takings at the box office, Spielberg would next team with Star Wars creator and dear friend George Lucas on a new action adventure film. The film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first of the Indiana Jones trilogy, was his homage to the cliffhanger serials of the Golden Age of Hollywood, with Harrison Ford (whom Lucas had previously cast in his Star Wars films) as the archaeologist and adventurer hero Indiana Jones. The biggest film at the box office in 1981, and recipient of numerous Oscar nominations including Best Director (Spielberg's second nomination) and Best Picture (the second Spielberg film to be nominated for Best Picture), Raiders is still hailed as a landmark example of the action cinema genre. E.T.Image:Ronald Reagan and Steven Spielberg 1.jpg Steven Spielberg with President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan after a showing of E.T. One year later, Spielberg returned to his science fiction/aliens genre, with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the story of a boy and the alien whom he befriends (who is trying to get back "home" to outer space). E.T. went on to become the top-grossing film of all time until it was beaten by another of his films, Jurassic Park, in 1993. E.T. was the first of Spielbergs films to both be directed without the use of storyboards in the production and to be the first with a clear global mass marketing and commercial strategy. It was also nominated for many Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. It is considered by Spielberg himself, to be his most personal film. He describes E.T. as "a very personal story, about the divorce of my parents, how I felt when my parents broke up."[3] The origins of the film are disputed, some say that E.T. originated as a sci-fi suspense thriller called Night Skies, though some also believe it originated from Satyajit Ray's The Alien script (see Alleged plagiarism). On June 27, 1982, Spielberg was invited to show E.T. at the White House by Ronald and Nancy Reagan. At the same time as E.T. Spielberg was involved in the production of Poltergeist, a film that he co-wrote, co-produced (and some people claim, directed). The film was released only a week before E.T.. Spielberg also at this time, negotiated an unusually lucrative video game licensing deal with Atari for an E.T. video game. This was a famously expensive failure which contributed to the video game crash of 1983. Indiana Jones and the Temple of DoomHis friend George Lucas immediately pulled Spielberg back in as part of their friendly agreement to make more Indiana Jones movies with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The film was plagued with uncertainty for the material and script. However, the saving grace for Spielberg during the making of this film would be the meeting of his future wife Kate Capshaw, who was cast as Indiana's new love interest. The reviews were less positive than they were for its predecessor, though the film was a blockbuster hit. It was criticized for lacking the energy of the original, as well as for its grossly inaccurate and ignorant depiction of Indian culture. The extreme violence and gore would also inspire the Motion Picture Association of America to create the PG-13 rating the following year - in fact it was Spielberg that suggested this rating.[citation needed] Twilight Zone and The GooniesIn 1983 and 1984, Spielberg produced two high grossing movies. The first was a big-screen adaptation of The Twilight Zone. The movie consists of five different segments—two segments of original material directed by John Landis and three remakes of classic Twilight Zone episodes, each from a different director; Spielberg himself directed the segment "Kick the Can", about an old man (played by Benjamin "Scatman" Crothers) who has the ability to grant youth to the residents of an old folk's home. Controversy struck Spielberg when a helicopter accident on Landis's set resulted in the deaths of two child actors and veteran actor Vic Morrow. Despite the tragic results of the Twilight Zone movie, Spielberg would again pay homage to the show two years later by launching Amazing Stories, a similar TV series which Spielberg would produce and occasionally direct. The second was when Spielberg came up with the story and co-wrote the screenplay for The Goonies. The film was directed by Richard Donner and Spielberg's role was as executive producer, along with close colleagues Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy. The film was released in June 1985 and was one of the top ten highest grossing movies of the year, though its reaction among critics was split. Spielberg also appeared in the two-part music video for Cyndi Lauper's Goonies soundtrack song, "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough". Image:SpielbergCyndiLauperGoonies.jpg Spielberg in The Goonies 'R' Good Enough Music Video by Cyndi Lauper. The Color PurpleIn December 1985, Spielberg released The Color Purple, an adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. Many critics were unsure of whether or not Spielberg could handle such serious material, as his output to that point had been viewed as "lighter" entertainment. Indeed, this proved to be Spielberg's trial by fire in presenting the story of a generation of oppressed African-American women (Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey) during depression-era America. Danny Glover played the abusive patriarch. The film was another box office smash and hailed by critics as Spielberg's successful foray into the dramatic genre. Roger Ebert proclaimed it the best movie of the year and later entered it into his Great Films archive. It received 11 Academy Award nominations including two for Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. However in one of the most controversial instances in the History of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Spielberg himself went without a Best Director nomination, despite the multitude of nominations the picture received (none of them awarded). Empire of the Sun1987 was a time when the Chinese economy was beginning to boom, and as the Chinese gates began to open to the world, Spielberg took advantage by shooting the first American movie in Shanghai since the 1930s. The result was an adaptation of J.G. Ballard's autobiographical novel, Empire of the Sun, which told the story of a young boy named Jim (Christian Bale) who is separated from his parents during the sacking of Shanghai in 1941, and is forced to survive through the rest of the war. Spielberg wanted to convey a heartfelt message of innocence being shattered as a result of war, as audiences saw the transformation of Jim from sheltered Shanghai to a struggling and resourceful war refugee. The film garnered numerous praise from critics, was nominated for several Oscars, but did not attract the kind of box office power that Spielberg's films usually got at the box office. Andrew Sarris praised the film calling it the best film of the year and later included it among the best films of the entire decade.[16] Indiana Jones and The Last CrusadeImage:Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade A.jpg Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was the third installment of the Indiana Jones trilogy After two forays into dramatic films, Spielberg returned to familiar territory by re-uniting "one last time" for another Indiana Jones film titled Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. With the inclusion of star Sean Connery, Spielberg vicariously fulfilled a lifelong dream to make a James Bond movie. Lucas himself heralded his Indiana Jones creation as an alternative to Bond back when they first discussed films to work on together. The father-son issues in the picture are congruent with much of Spielberg's work, making this Indy film the most personal of the three. Recipient of glowing reviews and big box office receipts, Spielberg, Lucas and Ford left the franchise on a high mark. Always1989 marked the first year in which Spielberg would direct two movies. Following on the heels of his last Indiana Jones movie, he would re-unite with actor Richard Dreyfuss with Always. Inspired by the film A Guy Named Joe, Always is the story of Pete, a daredevil pilot who extinguishes forest fires. When killed on his last mission, he becomes something of a guardian angel for a young man named Ted. But when Ted falls in love with the girlfriend Pete left behind, Pete must learn to let go of her and do what's best to influence these characters as they themselves approach another potential tragedy. Always marked Spielberg's first foray into the romantic genre. A box office flop and victim of mixed reviews, Always stands out (or more precisely doesn't) as arguably Spielberg's most overlooked and forgotten film. The film was otherwise notable as being the last film which starred Audrey Hepburn. HookAfter the failure of Always, Spielberg headed back to safer waters. In many ways, a Peter Pan story directed by Steven Spielberg seemed like a forgone conclusion. He had tried numerous times to film a live action version of Peter Pan without success. When writer James V. Hart pitched an alternate idea about Peter Pan returning to Neverland as an adult, Spielberg switched gears. Hook focused on a middle-aged Pan (played by Robin Williams), who returns to Neverland to face the title character (Captain Hook, played by Dustin Hoffman). However, by the time the film began shooting, innumerable rewrites and creative changes made by the numerous major Hollywood players attached to the project resulted in a film regarded by most critics as hit-or-miss at best. The film was made for $70 million and made $119 million domestically, but it was not as successful as some had hoped. Jurassic ParkIn 1993, Spielberg decided to once again tackle the adventure genre, as he directed the movie version of Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park, about killer dinosaurs rampaging through a tropical island resort. The adaptation muted somewhat the novel's message about the consequences of mankind tampering with nature, instead focusing on the adventure aspects of the story. With the aid of revolutionary special effects provided by friend George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic, the film would eventually become one of the top ten highest grossing films of all time (domestically), alongside his earlier E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Spielberg has stated in interviews that the Howard Hawks adventure movie Hatari! and the Japanese Godzilla movies provided inspiration for the Jurassic Park Films.[17] Jurassic Park was the first film to use the dts technology, a project which Spielberg had invested heavily in. Schindler's ListIn the same year that Jurassic Park was released, Spielberg finally received the critical acclaim he had sought after from a mature motion picture. Schindler's List (based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a man who risked his own life to save 1,100 people from the Holocaust). The screenplay, adapted from Thomas Keneally's novel, was originally in the hands of fellow director Martin Scorsese, but Spielberg negotiated with Scorsese to trade scripts (at the time, Spielberg held the script for a remake of Cape Fear). Schindler's List earned Spielberg his first Academy Award for Best Director (it also won Best Picture). While the film was a huge success at the box office, Spielberg claimed not to have partaken in the profits, and instead used the money to set up the Shoah Foundation, which he continues to finance. The foundation is a non-profit organization with the goal of providing an archive for the filmed testimony of as many survivors of the Holocaust as possible, so that their stories will not be lost in the future. Some critics maintain that Schindler's List is the most accurate portrayal of the Holocaust, and in 1999 the American Film Institute listed it among the 10 Greatest Films ever Made (#9). Though Spielberg admits it is definitely his most important film, he still holds it second to E.T. as his masterwork. Some critics, on the other hand, regard it as his finest and most mature film. 1993 onwardsThe Lost World: Jurassic Park1993 was Spielberg's biggest year with the success of Jurassic Park and Schindler's List. Taking a four-year hiatus from directing to spend more time with his family and build his new studio DreamWorks,[18] Spielberg found himself back in the director's chair in 1997. This time, he was helming the sequel to 1993's gigantic Jurassic Park, The Lost World. The film received mixed reviews, but did manage to generate nearly $230 million in domestic box office. In hindsight Spielberg expressed his view that this sequel was a movie he wanted to see, but didn't necessarily want to make himself. He would relinquish the opportunity to direct any more Jurassic Park films. AmistadImage:Dreamworks.jpg Spielberg help co-found Dreamworks in 1997 Spielberg followed his 1993 formula of releasing a dinosaur movie followed by a historical drama by doing it again in 1997. If Lost World was his bid to conquer the box office, Amistad (like Schindler's List) was his bid to win over the critics come awards season. Based on a true story about enslaved Africans who rebelled against their captors, the film received lavish praise from the critics, but was noted for its violent massacre scenes. It did not do well at the box office however, and has been overlooked since its release. It would mark Spielberg's second essay on the treatment of Blacks in American history (the first being The Color Purple in 1985). Spielberg released Amistad under his new studio DreamWorks Pictures (formed with former Disney animation exec Jeffrey Katzenberg and media mogul David Geffen, providing the other letters in the company name). Dreamworks has released all of his movies since Amistad in 1997. Saving Private Ryan and Band of BrothersAnother of Spielberg's critically acclaimed films, the World War II drama Saving Private Ryan, was released in 1998. The film follows a squad of US soldiers led by Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks), from the landing at Omaha Beach in Normandy to the heart of French resistance, in order to retrieve a missing private (Matt Damon), whose brothers were lost to the war. Spielberg considered it one of his finest works, yet in a highly publicized "showdown", it lost the Best Picture Oscar at the 1999 Academy Awards to Shakespeare in Love. However, Spielberg would win his second Academy Award for his direction in the war epic. The film, renowned for its graphic violence, has proven highly influential on succeeding war movies like Black Hawk Down and Enemy at the Gates and it has set a standard for realistic depiction of combat. The film was also the first major hit for Spielberg's studio DreamWorks, which co-produced the film with its eventual sister studio, Paramount Pictures. Later on, Spielberg and Hanks, overwhelmed with the success of the film's subject, decided to team together to produce a TV mini-series based on Stephen Ambrose's book, Band of Brothers. The ten-part HBO mini-series follows the trials and accomplishments of the 101st Airborne Division, Easy Company, also starting from the landing in Normandy, to the Battle of the Bulge, to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest. The series won a slew of awards both at the Golden Globes and the Emmys. A.I. Artificial IntelligenceIn 2001, Spielberg filmed fellow director and friend Stanley Kubrick's final project, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, a project planned by the two directors for many years but which Kubrick was unable to begin during his lifetime. The futuristic movie told the story of a humanoid android longing for love. A.I. featured groundbreaking visual effects and a multi-layered, allegorical storyline in keeping with Kubrick's original vision. It starred William Hurt, Jude Law, Frances O'Connor, and child actor Haley Joel Osment as the android boy David. The film polarized both critics and audiences, some stating that the film was overly long and a pretentious impression of Kubrick, others believing it to be a masterpiece. The legendary director Billy Wilder called A.I. "the most underrated film of the past few years". The film failed to recoup its budget at the US box office, though it earned profits overseas. Minority ReportImage:Spielberg Minority Report.jpg Spielberg, Cruise, and Samantha Morton on the set of Minority Report. Following A.I., Spielberg and actor Tom Cruise collaborated for the first time in the futuristic neo-noir Minority Report, based upon the sci-fi short story written by Philip K. Dick about a D.C. police captain who has been foreseen to murder a man he has not yet met. The film received highly positive reviews with the review tallying website rottentomatoes.com reporting that 199 out of the 217 reviews they tallied were positive.[19] While criticized for its ignorance of the themes of humanity in author Dick's original story,[citation needed] the film was praised as a futuristic homage to film noir, with its intelligent premise, thrilling chase scenes, and whodunit structure. In typical Spielberg fashion the film earned over 300 million dollars worldwide. Roger Ebert, who named it the best film of 2002, praised the film for its breathtaking vision of the future as well as for the way Spielberg blended CGI with live-action.[20] Catch Me if You CanShortly after the release of Minority Report, Spielberg and Co. immediately went to work on Catch Me if You Can, a story of the daring adventures of a youthful con artist. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role, with Saving Private Ryan star Tom Hanks as the FBI agent out to catch him. The movie marked a turn of genre for Spielberg, who was at this point seen to be branching out to different kinds of film genres aside from the usual sci-fi fare for which he was known. This film is arguably his most offbeat film to date. It earned significant critical acclaim and box office success. It also earned Christopher Walken a nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The film is particularly known for John Williams' score and its unique title sequence. The completion of this film once again marked another conclusion to a marathon run of film-making as it closed the hectic back-to-back-to-back filming of A.I., Minority Report and Catch Me if You Can; a trio regarded as Spielberg's "running-man" trilogy since it shares the common theme of a character fleeing authority. The TerminalSpielberg collaborated once again with Tom Hanks along with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Stanley Tucci in The Terminal, a warm-hearted comedy about a man of Eastern European descent who is stranded in an airport after his home country suffers a civil war during his flight, strongly paralleling the situation of Merhan Karimi Nasseri. It received mixed reviews but performed relatively well at the box office. In 2005, Empire magazine ranked Spielberg number one on a list of the greatest film directors of all time. War of the WorldsA modernized adaptation of War of the Worlds (a co-production of Paramount and DreamWorks), based on Dr. H.G. Wells book of the same name, featuring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning, was released in the U.S. on June 29, 2005. As with past Spielberg films, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) provided the visual effects. In his films E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg portrayed alien visitors as potentially friendly for human beings willing to connect with them. War of the Worlds marked a departure from those optimistic themes; more violent alien invaders wreak havoc upon Earth. The film was a major box office success and critical opinions were generally positive, although some critics pointed out logical inconsistencies in the plot of the film and commented on its relative lack of a satisfying conclusion. Also hounding the film's release was the growing controversy sparked by Cruise and his Scientology religious beliefs, which arose during War's marketing campaign. Spielberg was inspired to do the film after his childhood love of the book The War of the Worlds written by H. G. Wells. The movie features Spielberg's trademark of a distant father reconnecting with his children. A couple of weeks after the film's DVD release, DreamWorks (excluding its animation division) was sold to Viacom, the parent company of Paramount. Image:TIME Magazine Dec. 12, 2005.jpg Spielberg on the cover of the December 12, 2005 issue of TIME. MunichOn the same day as the release of War of the Worlds, Spielberg began shooting Munich, a film about the events following the 1972 Munich Massacre. Munich stands as Spielberg's second film essaying Jewish relations in the world (the first being Schindler's List). The film is based on Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team, a book by Canadian journalist George Jonas. Although promoted as non-fiction, the book's veracity has been largely questioned by journalists. It was previously adapted into the 1986 made-for-TV movie Sword of Gideon. The film received strong critical praise, but underperformed at the US and world box-office. The film has raised criticism from several Israeli and Palestinian commentators and remains one of Spielbergs most controversial films to date.[21] Munich received five Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture, Film Editing, Original Music Score (by John Williams), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Director for Spielberg. It was Spielberg's sixth Best Director nomination and fifth Best Picture nomination. Work as a ProducerImage:Seaquest3.jpg Roy Scheider and Steven Spielberg on the set of NBC's seaQuest DSV (1993) Since the mid-1980s Spielberg has increased his role as a film producer. He has produced several cartoons, including Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Toonsylvania and Freakazoid!. He was also, for a short time, the executive producer of the long-running medical drama ER. In 1989, he brought the concept of The Dig to LucasArts. He contributed with the project from that time to 1995 when the game was released. He also collaborated with software publishers Knowledge Adventure on the multimedia game Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair, which was released in 1996. Spielberg appears, as himself, in the game to direct the player. Spielberg was branded for a Lego Moviemaker kit, the proceeds of which went to the Starbright Foundation. In 1993, Spielberg acted as executive producer for the highly anticipated television series, seaQuest DSV; a science fiction series set "in the near future" starring Roy Scheider (who Spielberg had directed in Jaws) and Jonathan Brandis akin to Star Trek: The Next Generation that aired on Sundays at 8:00 p.m. on NBC. While the first season was moderately successful, the second season did less well. Spielberg's name no longer appeared in the third season and the show was cancelled mid way through the third season. Spielberg served as a producer of Memoirs of a Geisha, an adaptation of the best-selling novel by Arthur Golden, a film he was previously attached to as director. In 2006 Spielberg co-executive produced with famed filmmaker Robert Zemeckis a CGI childrens movie called Monster House, marking their first collaboration together since 1990s Back to the Future Part III. He also teamed with Clint Eastwood for the first time in their careers, co-producing Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima with Robert Lorenz and Eastwood himself. He earned his twelfth Academy Award nomination for the latter film as it was nominated for Best Picture. Other major television series Spielberg produced were Band of Brothers and Taken. He was an executive producer on the critically acclaimed 2005 TV miniseries Into the West which won 2 Emmy awards, including one for Geoff Zanelli's score. Upcoming projectsSpielberg's biggest priority currently is the long awaited Indiana Jones IV which is to begin filming in 2007 and is scheduled for release on May 22nd, 2008.[22] Spielberg has also begun plans for an Abraham Lincoln bio-pic. Lincoln, which stars Liam Neeson as the 16th President of the United States, is also scheduled for release in 2008.[23] In June 2006 it was confirmed Spielberg had already begun working on a space travel movie titled Interstellar.[24] It will be based on real scientific theories of black holes, worm holes, time travel, and gravity. It will be his first human space-travel film, as Close Encounters of the Third Kind involved alien space travel. Spielberg is also serving as co-executive producer for the new Transformers live action film with Brian Goldner, an employee of Hasbro. The film will be directed by Michael Bay and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and will be released on July 4 2007. A 4th Jurassic Park film is also in development. He is also producing films to be upcoming, including a remake of When Worlds Collide (2008). DreamWorks announced on March 8, 2007 that Spielberg will realize a Tintin[25] film after 25 years of having the rights to.[26] Currently Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett are co-producing a TV reality show about filmmaking. The show is similar to American Idol in that 16 unknown filmmakers will be brought on and will have to compete to make movies. The last filmmaker standing will receive a US $1,000,000 development deal with DreamWorks, as well as an office "On the Lot".[27] He is also currently working on three games for EA,[28] and is also producing two untitled Fox TV series, one focusing on fashion, another on time-travellers from World War II.[29] StyleThemesSpielberg's films often deal with several recurring themes. Most of his films deal with ordinary characters searching | ||||||
