New Spielberg movie: The Fabelmans (2022)

[Jay 37,314]

3 hours ago, crumbs said:

Even more interesting than Rogen co-starring, Spielberg himself is co-writing the screenplay with Tony Kushner! That's an elite combination of talent. And it's Spielberg's first writing project since A.I.

 

Not sure if that's new information but it was to me!

 

That information is in the main post of this thread you're posting in. 

[crumbs 14,304]

Well not everyone has the time to read every post in every thread, Jay...

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Jay reads every post and has a perfect memory. 

[crumbs 14,304]

I can hardly remember what I ate for lunch, much less what the first post of this thread says.

[A24 4,326]

2 hours ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Jay reads every post and has a perfect memory. 

 

Photographic memory!

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

I'll send him a photograph he'll never forget.

[Edmilson 7,394]

15 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I'll send him a photograph he'll never forget.

 

A dick pic?

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,356]

29 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

I'll send him a photograph he'll never forget.

[Quintus 5,399]

4 hours ago, Jay said:

 

That information is in the main post of this thread you're posting in. 

 

Yes and I'd already read about your Last of Us news you linked to today last week. 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

 

 

 

" That information is in the main post of this thread..."

[mrbellamy 6,272]

Paul Dano playing the character based on Spielberg's dad

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Dano who?

[A24 4,326]

He's a very good actor known from There Will Be Blood, Prisoners, etc. 

[Thor 7,477]

Yes, he's great -- although I can't see any physical resemblance to Arnold Spielberg. Then again, I guess that's not the point.

[bruce marshall 1,315]

He played young Brian Wilson in LOVE AND MERCY.

[mrbellamy 6,272]

18 minutes ago, Thor said:

Yes, he's great -- although I can't see any physical resemblance to Arnold Spielberg. Then again, I guess that's not the point.

 

Not especially but he can approximate that middle aged dad look.

 

 

[A24 4,326]

He already got the glasses!

[mrbellamy 6,272]

Exactly! What else do you need?

[A24 4,326]

A bow tie?

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

A hat?

[filmmusic 1,823]

I have a question:

I don't know anything about Spielberg's life.

Is it that interesting that an interesting movie can be made out of it?

[Thor 7,477]

24 minutes ago, filmmusic said:

I have a question:

I don't know anything about Spielberg's life.

Is it that interesting that an interesting movie can be made out of it?

 

Yes, there's a great coming-of-age story in there. As I previously noted, he was a Jewish kid living in a WASP community. There was bullying involved. But by casting his attackers in his 8MM films, he got temporary power over them. Then there are all the stories and aspects that eventually became trademarks of his films -- the fascination for his father's war days (especially airplanes), the trip to the field to watch the meteor shower, the aspect of strong female characters and deceptive father figures (he was the only boy among several sisters, and his mother took care of him when the parents divorced at an early age) etc. etc.

 

I can easily picture a film in the style of STAND BY ME coming out of this.

[A24 4,326]

Has there ever before been a director who made a movie about himself? Don't get me wrong, I prefer this over Indiana Jones Umpteen or President X, but you have to admit, there is something narcissistic about it.  

[Romão 2,274]

I don't think this project will be "Spielberg: a life". It's a ficcional story loosely based on his own childhood experience. And in that sense, he's hardly the first director to do something of this ilk

[Thor 7,477]

Isn't all art narcissistic, in a way? Spielberg has used his childhood and life in pretty much all of his movies, but now - in his mid 70s - he feels like exploring it in a fictional setting. Looking back more literally. I can appreciate that.

[Jay 37,314]

I never once took this announcement to mean we were getting a story literally just showing us Spielberg 's childhood, the Deadline articles all are deliberate in saying "inspired by". 

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

And we all know that means it will most certainly not be about his childhood.

[Jay 37,314]

It'll probably be about a kid dealing with the divorce of his parents and being bullied at school by making films on 8mm, and we'll probably get to see the visions he has in his head of the movies he wants to make as big elaborate set pieces, juxtaposed with the actuality of shooting with what he has on hand

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

9 minutes ago, Jay said:

It'll probably be about a kid dealing with the divorce of his parents and being bullied at school by making films on 8mm, and we'll probably get to see the visions he has in his head of the movies he wants to make as big elaborate set pieces, juxtaposed with the actuality of shooting with what he has on hand

You should just write the script now, because I'm buying this...

[Jay 37,314]

I just hope it doesn't throw in endless winks and nods to actual Spielberg flicks, like a guy in town that acts like Quint, a lady his father has an affair with that looks like Melinda Dillon, a bully calling him penis breath, etc

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

That would actually be fun!

[Thor 7,477]

7 minutes ago, Jay said:

I just hope it doesn't throw in endless winks and nods to actual Spielberg flicks, like a guy in town that acts like Quint, a lady his father has an affair with that looks like Melinda Dillon, a bully calling him penis breath, etc

 

Given how reluctant Spielberg was to have references to his own movies in READY PLAYER ONE (the book has many), I doubt that's gonna happen.

[Jay 37,314]

Unless he was saving them all for this one!

[Thor 7,477]

He, he. Yeah, he could always squeeze them all together in a scene that lasts about a nano second, like the Oma Tres Oscar nomination stuff in RISE OF SKYWALKER.

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

2 minutes ago, Thor said:

He, he. Yeah, he could always squeeze them all together in a scene that lasts about a nano second, like the Oma Tres Oscar nomination stuff in RISE OF SKYWALKER.

This scene was the best from the whole movie!

 

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

Unless he was saving them all for this one!

Don't think so. If I recall correctly he didn't put references to his movies not be criticized again as he has been for 1941 (the movie not the year JS )

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Are you saying he was responsible for WWII?

[Raiders of the SoundtrArk 2,429]

23 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Are you saying he was responsible for WWII?

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

29 minutes ago, Raiders of the SoundtrArk said:

If I recall correctly he didn't put references to his movies not be criticized again as he has been for 1941

 

Did he put references to his own movies in 1941?

[Jay 37,314]

Yes, several - haven't you seen it before?

[Thor 7,477]

The JAWS/Susan Backline scene is particularly amusing.

[Jurassic Shark 12,033]

Haven't seen it yet, but I've at least purchased it now.

[Edmilson 7,394]

Plenty of directors have made movies inspired by their childhoods, specially in Italy. For example, Cinema Paradiso and I think Fellini has made one as well.

[A24 4,326]

42 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Plenty of directors have made movies inspired by their childhoods, specially in Italy. For example, Cinema Paradiso and I think Fellini has made one as well.

 

I was more thinking along the lines of a Spielberg praising himself, his achievements, collecting movie awards, showing the world how it's done. 

[Muad'Dib 1,801]

Truffaut made some one of his best films inspired by his own childhood.

[Not Mr. Big 4,639]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

I just hope it doesn't throw in endless winks and nods to actual Spielberg flicks, like a guy in town that acts like Quint, a lady his father has an affair with that looks like Melinda Dillon, a bully calling him penis breath, etc

All the stories were true!!

[mrbellamy 6,272]

Everyone's speculating that it'll be about the kid but I've been thinking this will be a divorce drama, which is a subject he's never actually confronted directly, even though it's always in the margins. Catch Me If You Can is probably closest. But it could be Spielberg's Kramer vs Kramer where the kid(s) have a large role but it's not a coming-of-age tale per se.

 

The New York Times did a profile on him in 1999 and was asked about a script his sister Anne had written that he had been wanting to make about his family, but was too nervous what his parents would think. 

 

Quote

I ask Spielberg if he might ever make a film that's truly about himself. Yes, he says, somewhat wistfully. It's called ''I'll Be Home.'' It's about his family, written by his sister Anne, who was a co-writer of ''Big.'' Spielberg has considered making ''I'll Be Home'' for years. ''My big fear,'' he explains, ''is that my mom and dad won't like it and will think it's an insult and won't share my loving yet critical point of view about what it was like to grow up with them.''

 

Obviously this is a different script but I just feel like in light of that quote, coming out of the gate announcing the new movie as a Michelle Williams vehicle plus now with Paul Dano neither of whom are acting slouches, Kushner being one of the great living playwrights, and especially his parents' recent death, I have the feeling this is gonna be a movie about them and for them. I feel like whatever I'll Be Home became in his head, this has to be related and something he's been percolating on for awhile. It seems like this whole idea of doing an autobiographical film was always through the lens of "What are my parents gonna think about this?" and I think he's gonna be talking about this movie as how he processed his grief.

 

I think it'll be less fraught than something like Marriage Story and maybe not literally a divorce film because that happened just after he graduated high school, unless that's a change he makes to the story. But because they were together his whole childhood and adolescence, it makes me think this is gonna be about whatever he felt growing up with them as a married couple, their incompatibilities, the weird tension of trying to be a family through that, and that might be what he worries his parents would have found offensive. Those are the kinds of tricky conversational mazes Kushner really excels at, the kind of writing you get in Lincoln and Angels in America. 

[bruce marshall 1,315]

8 hours ago, AC1 said:

Has there ever before been a director who made a movie about himself? Don't get me wrong, I prefer this over Indiana Jones Umpteen or President X, but you have to admit, there is something narcissistic about it.  

The family drama in TREE OF LIFE was based on Malicks childhood

6 minutes ago, mrbellamy said:

Everyone's speculating that it'll be about the kid but I've been thinking this will be a divorce drama, which is a subject he's never actually confronted directly, even though it's always in the margins. Catch Me If You Can is probably closest. But it could be Spielberg's Kramer vs Kramer where the kid(s) have a large role but it's not a coming-of-age tale per se.

 

The New York Times did a profile on him in 1999 and was asked about a script his sister Anne had written that he had been wanting to make about his family, but was too nervous what his parents would think. 

 

 

Obviously this is a different script but I just feel like in light of that quote, coming out of the gate announcing the new movie as a Michelle Williams vehicle plus now with Paul Dano neither of whom are acting slouches, Kushner being one of the great living playwrights, and especially his parents' recent death, I have the feeling this is gonna be a movie about them and for them. I feel like whatever I'll Be Home became in his head, this has to be related and something he's been percolating on for awhile. It seems like this whole idea of doing an autobiographical film was always through the lens of "What are my parents gonna think about this?" and I think he's gonna be talking about this movie as how he processed his grief.

 

I think it'll be less fraught than something like Marriage Story and maybe not literally a divorce film because that happened just after he graduated high school, unless that's a change he makes to the story. But because they were together his whole childhood and adolescence, it makes me think this is gonna be about whatever he felt growing up with them as a married couple, their incompatibilities, the weird tension of trying to be a family through that, and that might be what he worries his parents would have found offensive. Those are the kinds of tricky conversational mazes Kushner really excels at, the kind of writing you get in Lincoln and Angels in America. 

Kids in the Fifties didn't generally  dream of being a director when they grew up. Acting, maybe! They wanted to be James Dean, not Orson Welles.

It's a really unique story of a filmic genius before they existed.

Looking forward to it!

[Once 604]

I would say that there's a great tradition of directors making some of their best movies based on their childhood. Films like Bergman's Fanny och Alexander, Fellini's Amarcord, Malle's Au revoir les enfants, Cuarón's Roma, Tarkovsky's Zerkalo, Terence Davies' Distant Voices, Still Lives, etc.
I am really looking forward to this one!

[A24 4,326]

And Spielberg's movie about the childhood of J.G. Ballard is my favorite Spielberg movie. I hope Williams will not be on autopilot with this one.