Steven Spielberg Developing a Western Movie

[Once 1,062]

Quote

After saying last year that the western genre has “eluded [him] for decades,” Steven Spielberg is finally making his addition to the genre.

 

During a keynote conversation at SXSW, moderator Sean Fennessey asked the director about whether he has plans to make a western film. “I can’t reveal anything right now, but I have something in development,” Spielberg said. “And it kicks ass.”

Spielberg also said he hopes to shoot the film in Texas — though that may have been a wink to the audience, as SXSW takes place in Austin. When pressed for more details, he added: “There will be horses. There will be guns. There will be no tropes, I can tell you that. There’s going to be no stereotypes.”

From Variety! Man, I think it sounds great, I hope it gets off the ground!

[Edmilson 11,999]

Bring it on!

 

 

(but don't take too long though )

[BloodBoal 8,363]

With another Western score by Williams, hopefully.

[Xander Harris 9,441]

I like tropes and stereotypes.

[BloodBoal 8,363]

Tropes and stereotypes have no place in this new world we are building.

[Poor_Man_S_HirschFeld 97]

It may end up only producing it, he often talks in the first person when Amblin is involved, but sure I'd love see him doing a western, traditional or not. But if he's directing it, boy I'd sure love John to score it!

 

I suspect he was eyeing the True Grit remake a few years back, even though the official story is that it was always attached to the Cohen Brothers.

[Jill Sandwich 10,906]

I dreamt I was in a Western. I was being chased by all these Indians... and a bear.

[Jim 6,258]

Damn. Of the two, I'd have much rather Williams had scored this than Disclosure.

 

1 hour ago, Xander Harris said:

I like tropes and stereotypes.

 

Yeah Spielberg going out of his way to make this point kind of has the opposite effect he thinks it does.

[Toillion 405]

I’m guessing this is very early in development so it would be a tall ask to have JW score this when it’s ready. It would be cool, if he was up for it, to write a theme now before they even start filming. 

[Mr. Hooper 8,367]

Hope it's not a "deconstruction" of the genre... 😭

[Muad'Dib 2,026]

I remember (don't know if it was true or not) that Spielberg was developing a western in the early 2000's along with Scorsese called something like Into The Setting Sun.

 

I wonder if some ideas from that potential project got carried on into this...

[Once 1,062]

1 hour ago, Poor_Man_S_HirschFeld said:

It may end up only producing it, he often talks in the first person when Amblin is involved, but sure I'd love see him doing a western, traditional or not. But if he's directing it, boy I'd sure love John to score it!

That's a very good point. Hard to know exactly without more context!

[Xander Harris 9,441]

2 hours ago, Jim said:

Yeah Spielberg going out of his way to make this point kind of has the opposite effect he thinks it does.

It’s a snobby festival crowd, so I guess he feels he needs to appease these modern more sophisticated audiences who would be appalled at the Cowboys and Indians entertainment from the 40s and 50s he of course enjoys. “I also didn’t make the Temple of Doom. Honest. That was George’s idea and really, I was under the black sleep of Kali.”

[Brónach 1,323]

Noo we must make the lovers of lame cliches happy.

[Mr. Hooper 8,367]

3 minutes ago, Brónach said:

Noo we must make the lovers of lame cliches happy.

Agreed. 

 

And I want uncomplicated good guys I can root for, and irredeemably bad guys I can hiss at.

[Edmilson 11,999]

Eh, as long as Williams scores it, he can do whatever Western movie he wants to. He just can't take too long to get it off the ground. We don't know for how long Williams will be able to keep writing film scores.

 

Didn't he rekindle his friendship with Koepp? Koepp sure can put together a screenplay fast. Then, just get some castmembers and give the early cut for JW to start working.

 

Honestly, I feel like a Western is a much better and more fitting choice for a final John Williams score than The Fabelmans, Dial of Destiny or Disclosure Day. Spielberg wanted to collaborate with Williams precisely because of his Western scores for Mark Rydell.

[Andy 7,409]

What is a modern Spielberg Western? And what kind of Western score are we talking? Big open sky Coplandesque?  I doubt it.  I think romanticizing the idea of a modern version of the Cowboys is unrealistic. 

[Tom 6,546]

4 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Bring it on!

 

I believe that music qualifies both as a trope and stereotype.  

[Xander Harris 9,441]

I would assume it’s modern, more sophisticated, realistic and relatable, and of course dark and disturbing. People are already taking bets what JW’s last score will be? If this ends up in typical Spielbergian development hell, which seems likely, Disclosure Day will be the last collaboration. I’d bet on that one. But I don’t gamble.

 

He was supposed to make a pirate movie, a space movie, Robot Apocalypse. Remember that one? What about the Bullitt movie? There must be a Spielbergiverse where all these other movies were made instead of the boring stuff we got instead. Steven’s leftovers. I’d still be a happy person there.

[Edmilson 11,999]

1 hour ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Agreed. 

 

And I want uncomplicated good guys I can root for, and irredeemably bad guys I can hiss at.

 

53 minutes ago, Xander Harris said:

I would assume it’s modern, more sophisticated, realistic and relatable, and of course dark and disturbing.

You two probably aren't fans of Unforgiven then. Or The Dollars Trilogy. Or Once Upon a Time in the West. Sam Peckinpah movies. Or The Searchers, who was probably the first big movie which showed Native Americans in a slightly more positive light ("those woke jerks! Look what they're doing! Now you can't even show indians as blood thirsty murderers anymore! Woke trash!") and a protagonist (played by woke icon John Wayne) who was an asshole.

 

The kind of modern, sophiaticated, realistic, relatable, dark, disturbing Western that Justin is thinking of exist since before he was born. And the uncomplicated good guys Justin wants aren't a big thing in Western tales since, what, the 1930s?

 

Of course, you still have Shane, The Magnificent Seven, etc. The Cowboys that Williams scored doesn't seem to be grim (I haven't seen it - in fact, has anyone here watched it? Or other Williams/Rydell movies?). But the general trend in Western storytelling, the movies that actually "stuck" since the 1960s, are those with a dark, cynical, violent vision of the wild west. 

 

By the way, anyone else likes modern Westerns? I mean, those that are actually set in the present day? Hell or High Water is awesome, one of the best movies from the last decade. Sicario is pretty good, and Wind River (starring Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch) is great. Taylor Sheridan was the king of modern Western cinema before he spent a decade building the Yellowstone Televised Universe.

[Xander Harris 9,441]

I don’t know how or if I inspired such tangential speech, but I think that’s just what your generation does. 

[Mr. Hooper 8,367]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

You two probably aren't fans of Unforgiven then. Or The Dollars Trilogy. Or Once Upon a Time in the West. Sam Peckinpah movies. Or The Searchers, who was probably the first big movie which showed Native Americans in a slightly more positive light ("those woke jerks! Look what they're doing! Now you can't even show indians as blood thirsty murderers anymore! Woke trash!") and a protagonist (played by woke icon John Wayne) who was an asshole.

[Poor_Man_S_HirschFeld 97]

3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Of course, you still have Shane, The Magnificent Seven, etc. The Cowboys that Williams scored doesn't seem to be grim (I haven't seen it - in fact, has anyone here watched it? Or other Williams/Rydell movies?). But the general trend in Western storytelling, the movies that actually "stuck" since the 1960s, are those with a dark, cynical, violent vision of the wild west. 

 

The Cowboys I've watched many many years ago, I was about 12. I liked it then and it's a solid coming of age story. Billy Crystal's City Slickers took more than one cues from it, I believe.

 

The western genre will always deal with tropes by the way, either embracing or rejecting them. Because it is a mythology, more than anything else, with little relation to history.

 

To me it's like sword and sorcery fantasy, or super hero comics. Of course it can be aproached in a number of ways, but it can't escape it's mythical roots.

[A24 5,070]

I was told the Western was dead.

[filmmusic 3,133]

Does anyone here feel like me, that doesn't want to watch a Spielberg movie again without a John Williams score?

I have combined those two in my mind so much, that I can't separate them.

I mean, OK, I can see another director's film with a John Williams score of course, but not a Spielberg film without him.

[A24 5,070]

8 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Hope it's not a "deconstruction" of the genre... 😭

 

I hope it is. The deconstruction of the Western genre are the best movies ever made. But knowing Spielberg it will probably be an overly sentimental Western with a little girl in a red coat walking over a bridge just when they were about to blow it up.

[BloodBoal 8,363]

4 hours ago, Edmilson said:

You two probably aren't fans of Unforgiven then. Or The Dollars Trilogy. Or Once Upon a Time in the West. Sam Peckinpah movies. Or The Searchers, who was probably the first big movie which showed Native Americans in a slightly more positive light ("those woke jerks! Look what they're doing! Now you can't even show indians as blood thirsty murderers anymore! Woke trash!") and a protagonist (played by woke icon John Wayne) who was an asshole.

 

The kind of modern, sophiaticated, realistic, relatable, dark, disturbing Western that Justin is thinking of exist since before he was born. And the uncomplicated good guys Justin wants aren't a big thing in Western tales since, what, the 1930s?

 

Of course, you still have Shane, The Magnificent Seven, etc. The Cowboys that Williams scored doesn't seem to be grim (I haven't seen it - in fact, has anyone here watched it? Or other Williams/Rydell movies?). But the general trend in Western storytelling, the movies that actually "stuck" since the 1960s, are those with a dark, cynical, violent vision of the wild west. 

 

Why not something like Back To The Future Part III? I mean, it's not like the rusty, conservative, "You can't do that nowadays!" Western of old, full of toxic masculinity and problematic characters (well, except for the bad guys, but that's the point), nor is it a "modern, sophisticated, realistic, relatable, dark and disturbing" Western.

 

It's just a fun "It's all make-believe" take on the Western genre complete with a fantastic theme by Silvestri. Actually, I believe Back To The Future Part III may very well be my favourite Western.

 

Yes, please let Spielberg and Williams do something like that!

 

 

[filmmusic 3,133]

11 minutes ago, A24 said:

The deconstruction of the Western genre are the best movies ever made.

What films you think have deconstructed the genre?

I would like to understand what that means exactly.

Perhaps Dances with wolves is one of them?

[A24 5,070]

1 minute ago, filmmusic said:

What films you think have deconstructed the genre? Perhaps Dances with wolves is one of them?

 

Theoretically, yes, but it has been ages since I've seen that one.

 

The proper name for the subgenre is the Revisionist Western or the Anti Western. Unlike most Western movies, this genre doesn't mythicize or romanticize the Old West. Some well known titles are Unforgiven (even though it does become a typical Western in the end, IMO), The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, Deadwood (HBO TV series), Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller, PTA's There Will Be Blood, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, The Quick And The Dead, Scorsese's Killers Of The Flower Moon, Sydney Pollack's Jeremiah Johnson (theoretically, not seen it in decades) ... A few more recent one that you will refuse to see on principal but that I really liked are Slow West, The Homesman, Jane Campion's The Power Of The Dog, ...

[filmmusic 3,133]

52 minutes ago, A24 said:

Jane Campion's The Power Of The Dog

I have seen this, and unfortunately I was bored to death.

I love The Piano though!

[Jim 6,258]

Campion's numbly desolate style does nothing for me.

[filmmusic 3,133]

6 minutes ago, Jim said:

Campion's numbly desolate style does nothing for me.

Ah, so you didn't like even The Piano?

(we're a bit off topic of course here)

[Jim 6,258]

I recall watching the first twenty minutes back when Oskar Schindler was the toast of Tinseltown, but I really wasn't in to it.

[pete 1,313]

Cowboys and Aliens 2 starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig... and Pedro Pascal and Timothée Chalamet!

[Edmilson 11,999]

Themes by Harry Gregson-Williams 

Score adapted and composed by John Williams 

[BloodBoal 8,363]

8 hours ago, Xander Harris said:

He was supposed to make a pirate movie, a space movie, Robot Apocalypse. Remember that one? What about the Bullitt movie?

 

5 minutes ago, pete said:

Cowboys and Aliens 2 starring Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig... and Pedro Pascal and Timothée Chalamet!

 

Cowboys vs. Pirates. vs. Aliens vs. Robots vs. Bullitt

[Maurizio 6,907]

.

[benoitjean 76]

When I see composers or conductors still active at over 98 years old,

it gives me a little hope

Herbert Blomstedt et Gyorgy Kurtag 

 

JB

[filmmusic 3,133]

1 hour ago, benoitjean said:

Quand je vois des compositeurs ou des chefs d'orchestre encore actifs à plus de 98 ans,
 Cela me donne un peu d'espoir. 

 

Would it be possible to stop writing in French please, so that we could all understand?
Yes, I could use the google translate tool, but I shouldn't have to do this in an English speaking forum.

[Jill Sandwich 10,906]

3 hours ago, filmmusic said:

I have seen this, and unfortunately I was bored to death.

 

I loved this movie!... no, not really.

[A24 5,070]

Deleted! Wrong thread!

 

Nevermind!

 

[Bespin Copilot 10,672]

A Western?

[Tom 6,546]

14 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Hope it's not a "deconstruction" of the genre... 😭

An Eastern?  

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 12,053]

14 hours ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Hope it's not a "deconstruction" of the genre... 😭

 

You cant make a normal western in this day and age. 

[Xander Harris 9,441]

What’s normal?

[BloodBoal 8,363]

4 minutes ago, #SnowyVernalSpringsEternal said:

You cant make a normal western in this day and age. 

 

What is a "normal Western"?

[filmmusic 3,133]

6 minutes ago, BloodBoal said:

 

What is a "normal Western"?

A western where the Americans are the good and the Indians are the bad?

[Jill Sandwich 10,906]

Cowboys and Indians, man!

[Xander Harris 9,441]

Is or was The Searchers really that progressive? I've been watching that flick since I was a little squirt and it certainly doesn't generate much sympathy for the Comanche. They massacre the farm, they take the girls, they get blown away in the end. There's no doubt that the Whites (and the plucky young Half-Breed) are the protagonists and the Indians are generally "Othered" as the kids are saying these days. Spoilers. Ethan may be an anti-hero, but of course still generates sympathy somehow. The anti-hero in and of itself is a western trope. It's a character with layers, rough around the edges, morally questionable. It's a Han Solo type. It's why he's the coolest character. The Searchers still leans in to tropes and stereotypes of the western. I ain't no fancy film school student, though.

[Andy 7,409]

I want Spielberg to do justice to the Lone Ranger… the Batman of the West.