EW reports that Spielberg and screenwriter Melissa Mathison will join up for the first time in 32 years, since E.T., for this tale of a young girl stopping the “Big, Friendly Giant.” The pic is to be produced by Kathleen Kennedy and will be Spielberg’s first directorial project since Lincoln.
Pic is slated for release in 2016.
Every Spielberg movie will the movie I most look forward to that year.
But THE BFG–that is a book I have waited for and wondered about since I was seven years old. It is my favorite Dahl, maybe tying with The Witches. And it is the last of Dahl’s great books that hasn’t been turned into a movie. The beginning with Sophie the orphan looking out onto the town from her window at “the witching hour” and perceiving a giant moving along with a trumpet, blowing into the windows of buildings–that has been a scene I myself have played in my head as if I were a director. There is most certainly no one better suited for the job than Spielberg. This is the biggest movie news I’ve heard in a long time.
“Really? You read this site and you don’t know why he would be more interested in this? Do you follow Spielberg at all? I mean, not his films but what he says about the future of film? I think he cares more about renewing the art of cinema than continuing this ruinous trend of big effects movies dominating the American film market. Good for him if so. The last thing the world needs is Robopocolypse.”
I’ve read the book, “Robopocolypse”, and I was looking forward to Spielberg doing a movie adaptation because I think he could do something great with the material. Had he announced that he wanted to produce/ direct a “Transformers” sequel (an example of a crappy brainless ‘blockbuster’ movie) then I would be disappointed, but the concept/ story of “Robopocolypse reminds me of something that Michael Crichton would have written about. I still consider “Jurassic Park” to be one of my favourite movies, and perhaps, Spielberg could have (still could) do something as great with “Robopocolypse”.
I highlighted the fact of Hemsworth and Hathaway being involved (hopefully still will be) which would contribute towards the film being a probable box office success, only because I hoped that would be an extra incentive for Spielberg to decide to opt with this project (I certainly wouldn’t expect to see Spielberg direct a movie solely because it seemed like it would make him lots of money).
I’m with Spielberg with anything he does. I recently saw WAR HORSE which was much maligned by the cool kids when it came out. What a beautiful film, I believe it has many special effects.
Under Spielberg, all these projects sound appetizing, but anyone who’s a proponent of A.I. has to be excited about ROBOPOCALYPSE. Spielberg never does mindless.
The novel Robopocalypse is great entertainment with a premise far more likely than Jurassic Park and Poltergeist. I always thought we liked Jurassic Park and Poltergeist.
Janet Maslin in the New York Times called Robopocalypse “An ingenious, instantly visual story.” The Wall Street Journal said: “Scarier than Jaws: We don’t have to go in the water, but we all have to use gadgets.” Stephen King said it’s “Terrific page-turning fun.” I always thought we listened to Stephen King.
Robopocalypse was light on character depth but it sounds as if Spielberg intends to fix that. The novel has been compared to Michael Crichton in his prime, to Philip K Dick and Robert Heinlein.
Science fiction movies are expensive. Science fiction movies need special effects. Are we going to be mad every time a great director buys the rights to a science fiction bestseller? Can we please try not to hate every effects-driven summer movie? How about judge them on a case by case basis. How about watch them before attacking them. Or reading the source material so we know whether it’s likely to be trash or treasure.
Nobody was holding a gun to Spielberg’s head when he bought Robopocalypse when it was still in galleys. He knew what he saw and he liked the idea. I liked it too, but if he wants to hand it to another director he trusts then I’ll have my fingers crossed for another Poltergeist instead of trying to spit on the whole idea of robots. (ahaha, sentient robots are sillier than aliens, aren’t they? ahahaha. No, they’re not. Sentient machines are the basis for some of the most genius sci-fiction of all time). Bottom line, I trust Spielberg, no matter what he decides to do.
What happened with the Robopocalypse delay is Dreamworks is now owned 50% by Reliance Entertainment out of Mumbai, and they’re nervous about the $550 million they fronted to Dreamworks in development money that Dreamworks pissed away on movies like The Fifth Estate that cost $30 mil and earn $8 mil. Movies like Fright Night and Dinner for Schmucks.
Dreamwork’s cash infusion from its Indian benefactor is drying up. Do we want to see Dreamworks collapse like Coppola’s Zoetrope collapsed? Or do we like to see Spielberg stepping in and coming to the rescue, directing classy sure-fire effects-heavy live-action fantasies like The Big Fucking Giant and classy beach-read sci-fiction thrillers like Robofuckingpocalypse — To Save His Studio.
Spielberg made his name directing classy beach-read sci-fiction thrillers. He built his dream studio on the backs of those movies. He built his own $3 Billion personal fortune with that kind of movie.
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and Minority Report are two of the smartest sci-fiction films of the past 15 years. Do we need to be wishing Speilberg would quit making sci-fiction films and leave that up to M. Night Shyamalan and Wally Pfister?
I happen to like sci-fi films when they’re smart and stylish and thought-provoking so I don’t mind when brilliant directors still want to tackle the much-maligned task.
Making hugely successful classy beach-read sci-fiction thrillers in addition to his serious first-class Oscar fodder at every stage of his career is the way Steven Spielberg has avoided becoming unemployed like David Lynch.
Actually, since Spielberg is constantly postponing “Robopocolypse”, and sidelining it by focusing on other projects, it would be awesome if Christopher Nolan were to take over the movie (Spielberg was originally meant to direct “Intersteller” so it’s not a completely unrealistic idea).
I don’t understand why ‘BFG’ has come out of the blue to sideline ‘Robopocolypse’… (Robopocolypse, with Hemsworth and Hathaway, would likely be a huge box office hit and would be much more interesting than ‘BFG’..) Come on..
I don’t understand why ‘BFG’ has come out of the blue to sideline ‘Robopocolypse’… (Robopocolypse, with Hemsworth and Hathaway, would likely be a huge box office hit and would be much more interesting than ‘BFG’..) Come on..
Really? You read this site and you don’t know why he would be more interested in this? Do you follow Spielberg at all? I mean, not his films but what he says about the future of film? I think he cares more about renewing the art of cinema than continuing this ruinous trend of big effects movies dominating the American film market. Good for him if so. The last thing the world needs is Robopocolypse.
“ruinous trend of big effects movies dominating the American film market”
I’m curious to see how Spielberg intends to do a movie about a Big Friendly Giant ochestrating a plan to capture all the other Less Friendly people-eating Giants suspended on ropes and chains from a huge fleet of British helicopters without using any Giant Effects or scenes of Giants being abducted in a raid of the Unfriendly Giants’ homeland by hundreds of helicopters.
Spielberg had this to say about Robopocalypse a year ago:
“We found that the film was costing a lot of money and I found a better way to tell the story more economically but also much more personally,” Spielberg said. “I found the personal way into Robopocalypse, and so I just told everybody to go find other jobs, I’m starting on a new script and we’ll have this movie back on its feet soon.”
He said he’s not sure of the timeline for when they might shoot, let alone get it into theaters, but he estimated a delay of about six to eight months.
Spielberg was adamant that he wasn’t scratching Robopocalypse off his to-do list.
“Not at all. I’m working on it as we speak,” he said.
Actually Sasha, Spielberg is doing a Cold War thriller with Tom Hanks before The BFG:
http://www.thewrap.com/steven-spielberg-attached-direct-bfg-tom-hanks-cold-war-thriller-will-next-exclusive/
Thanks Moviewatcher – actually I got that info about his next movie from EW. So they would also need to be corrected.
Wasn’t Spielberg directing “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara”??
i mean that was latest i read.
murtaza, the headlines for The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara that were everywhere on the net on April 20 said that it was “Spielberg’s latest project” — not his next.
FOX affiliates seemed to take special glee in reporting “Steven Spielberg’s latest project is Catholic Church scandal based on true story” — but that’s FOX. Fox loves it when they think Hollywood is attacking religion.
In fact, in the body of all those “latest project” articles the story stated specicifically that it would not be Spielberg’s next. The story said Tony Kushner is working on early stages of the screenply right now. And we know we don’t rush Tony Kushner.
Jeff Sneider said that Spielberg’s next will be his currently untitled Cold War thriller with Tom Hanks, and that Hanks had cleared out his schedule for the shoot this fall. BFG would come after (kind of makes sense, and Spielberg seems to like to shoot in twos).