Steven Spielberg says he’s at a loss about his next film after experiencing back-to-back productions from West Side Story and The Fabelmans.
“I wish, I wish,” Spielberg said to a crowd during a Berlin Festival press conference. “I was so involved with two films back-to-back… I never had a chance to think about what am I going to do when these two movies are over. And I sit here in front of all of you saying, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do next. I have no idea.”
While most filmmakers plan their calendars by the year, Spielberg has been so busy making West Side Story and The Fabelmans that he opted not to think beyond the finish line for those projects. There’s nothing wrong with taking time off to contemplate your next steps. In Spielberg’s line of work, each film sacrifices time, effort, and imagination. Giving yourself time to recharge is wise, especially if you get up in years.
“It’s kind of a nice feeling. And it’s also a horrible feeling. It’s nice that I can actually have control of my life again and makes my own choices in my real life. But I need to work and I love to work and that’s the biggest question I’m going to have with the rest of the year trying to figure this out.”
Spielberg has projects he could tackle. There’s the Frank Bullitt reboot and a George Gershwin biopic kicking around, but he should have mentioned those at the conference. He has plenty of production gigs happening, including the HBO limited series about Napoleon Bonaparte based on a screenplay by Stanley Kubrick. Spielberg is teaming up with Kubrick’s widow Christine Kubrick and her producer brother Jan Harlan for the endeavor. “We’re mounting a large production for HBO based on Stanley’s original script Napoleon, working on Napoleon as a seven-part limited series,” Spielberg said about the long-gestating adaptation.
What do you think Steven Spielberg’s next directing project should be? Would you like to see him bring something original to the silver screen or adapt a famous work that could use his expertise? Let us know if you have any ideas in the comments section.