Steven Spielberg

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Excellent video:
This tribute was created to honor Steven Spielberg when he received the 2012 David O. Selznick Achievement Award from the Producers Guild. The tribute highlights all the films that Mr. Spielberg served as Producer, Executive Producer and Director/Producer.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Documentary-in-the-making to stalk Spielberg in Los Angeles this fall.
Seeking donations.


Familiar faces in the video: Fran Casanova and Elodie Cinquanta.
 

Gear

New member
Steven Spielberg is said to've attended the Bilderberg Group before. Interesting, no?
 
Gear said:
Steven Spielberg is said to've attended the Bilderberg Group before. Interesting, no?
To conspire imposing a world government / planned economy with his capitalist ways?

Tinkertoys compared with The Invisible Hand...
 
Raiders...maybe?

Tony Mendez, Affleck's character in "Argo" is quoted saying: ?by the time Studio Six folded several weeks after the rescue, we had received 26 scripts, including some potential moneymakers. One was from Steven Spielberg.?
 

Montana Smith

Active member
Rocket Surgeon said:
How did Steven Spielberg make the money to secure the number three spot on Vanity Fair's highest paid in Hollywood?

Stop the press. I think I found the answer!

He took a part time job...

Hugh Manatee Wins said:
Dr. Kaizaad Navroze Kotwal of Ohio State University exposes Steven CIA Spielberg's propaganda in this analysis of the Indiana Jones series of movies.

The professor does not say Spielberg is working for CIA but I, HMW, do.


orz said:
That's why he's a professor at The Ohio State University's Theatre Department, has his B.A. in Theatre, Art, and Economics and an M.A. in Theatre and is also an actor, director, producer, writer and designer with over 150 credits to his name, while you're a nut posting on the internet.


Hugh Manatee Wins said:
I know a helluva lot more about Spielberg's spook career than this prof who is in the arts and doesn't know much about mil-intel doctrines and psyops.

But he recognizes racism when he sees it.

I know that Spielberg's racism is intentional to support military recruiting.

http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=16536


Thousands more such priceless gems about Steven's secret career by 'Humanity Wins' might be found by following this Google search.


:D



Rocket Surgeon said:
Tony Mendez, Affleck's character in "Argo" is quoted saying: “by the time Studio Six folded several weeks after the rescue, we had received 26 scripts, including some potential moneymakers. One was from Steven Spielberg.”

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplayl...e-cia-set-up-to-make-argo-was-it-e-t-20121016

As you know, the plot of the film recounts the (recently declassified, thanks to Bill Clinton) CIA mission to exfiltrate American hostages in Iran. A number of options were tabled, but the "best worst idea" came down to sending Tony Mendez (Affleck) into Iran on the premise that he was going to be shooting a movie, and then leaving with his "film crew" (ie. the hostages). Simple, right? Well, knowing that Iranian authorities would be checking that story down to the very last detail, the CIA set up a fake film company that to mount the movie that was never going to be made. Taking out ads in the trades, bringing on producers who had some name recognition and even hosting a table read, the agency sold it as the real thing. Indeed, it was almost too real.

Recounting his mission on the CIA website (via Reddit), Mendez provides every detail you might want to know (including a scan of the original poster for the movie -- see below), but he also notes that among the scripts that crossed the desk of the studio -- that as far as everyone was concerned was real -- was a submission by a guy named Steven Spielberg. Could it have been "E.T.," which he would eventually make in 1981 (and release in 1982)? At the time, he was coming off "1941," and while he would be filming "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" during when most of the events of the film took place, remember that Melissa Mathison banged out the first draft in eight weeks while he was on set and that Columbia Pictures had passed on it. Could Spielberg have been looking toward Studio Six to launch it instead??

Maybe whenever that next "Lincoln" webchat thingy happens someone can ask him (or he can give us a holla), but until then, here's an edited excerpt from Mendez's account of the mission and the "Argo" poster.

Our production company, "Studio Six Productions," was created in four days, including a weekend, in mid-January. Our offices had previously been occupied by Michael Douglas, who had just completed producing "The China Syndrome."

[Makeup artist] Jerome [Calloway] and his associate were masters at working the Hollywood system. They had begun applying "grease" and calling in favors even before I arrived. Simple things such as the installation of telephones were supposed to take weeks, but we had everything we needed down to the paper clips by the fourth day.

We arranged for full-page ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, the two trade papers most important to any business publicity campaign. We tried to keep Jerome's well-known name hidden, but the "trades" had their reporters hot on our trail, and the word was out that something big was brewing in the industry.

When the press discovered that Jerome was connected with this independent production company, interest mounted and more press play followed. Our efforts to keep Jerome's involvement secret actually added credibility to our putative film-making company. Hollywood, moreover, was an ideal place to create and dismantle a major cover entity overnight. The Mafia and many shady foreign investors were notorious for backing productions in Hollywood, where fortunes are frequently made and lost. It is also an ideal place to launder money.

Once Studio Six Productions was set up, we tackled the problem of identifying an appropriate script. Jerome and I sat around his kitchen table discussing what the theme should be. Because "Star Wars" had made it big only recently, many science-fiction, fantasy, and superhero films were being produced. We decided we needed a script with "sci-fi," Middle Eastern, and mythological elements. Something about the glory of Islam would be nice, too. Jerome recalled a recent script that might serve our purpose, and he hauled it out of a pile of manuscripts submitted for his consideration.

This script fit our purpose beautifully, particularly because no uninitiated person could decipher its complicated story line. The script was based on an award-winning sci-fi novel. The producers had also envisioned building a huge set that would later become a major theme park. They had hired a famous comic-strip artist to prepare concepts for the sets. This gave us some good "eyewash" to add to a production portfolio.

We decided to repackage our borrowed script by decorating it with the appropriate logo and title markings. The only copy of the script we needed would be carried by me as a prop to be shown to the Iranians in my role as production manager--and only in the event we were questioned at the airport in Tehran.

An ironic coda: by the time Studio Six folded several weeks after the rescue, we had received 26 scripts, including some potential moneymakers. One was from Steven Spielberg.
 
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Le Saboteur

Active member
http://image.toutlecine.com/photos/m/o/n/monsieur-n--2003-22-g.jpg

Spielberg was chatting with France's Canal+ on Sunday and suggested that his next project will be bringing Kubrick's Napoleon to... television. Yes, television. With the wealth of material Kubrick left behind (and subsequent scholarship), there's a mountain of stories to tell. Spielberg seems to think it'll work better as a mini-series.

The Hollywood Reporter said:
"I've been developing a Stanley Kubrick screenplay for a miniseries -- not for a motion picture -- about the life of Napoleon," Spielberg told French TV network Canal+ (watch the clip of the interview in the video below -- about 9 and a half minutes in.)

En français: Steven Spielberg prépare une mini-série NAPOLEON inspirée du projet avorté de Kubrick

In English: Steven Spielberg Developing Stanley Kubrick's 'Napoleon' as a Miniseries1

After having the opportunity to see the full ten-hour version of Abel Gance's Napoleon, last year I'm not sure anything ever needs to be done. Though, if he picks Philippe Torreton to reprise the role of L'Empereur I'll be there. Torreton's performance is definitive.

 
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Steven Spielberg plans film based on Indo-Pak border


MUMBAI: The childhood prodigy who made movies on 8mm cameras grew up to become the world's most famous filmmaker a long time ago. But life can still throw up surprises for commercially and critically acclaimed producer-director Steven Spielberg. In a moment that could have been straight out of one of his iconic Indiana Jones movies, he recently came across what he describes as a "treasure trove of photographic negatives from a 35mm still camera".

While much has been written about Spielberg, it is not generally known that his father, Arnold, served as a technical sergeant with the 490th Bombardment Squadron, nicknamed the 'Burma Bridge Busters' during World War II. The squadron was stationed in Karachi and bombed Japanese railway lines and bridges in Burma. For rest and recuperation, Spielberg's father would visit Bombay and Calcutta?as they were then known?and other places in India.

"About two years ago, I was going through a lot of my dad's things. We found three boxes full of my dad's love letters to my mom and her letters back to him. So I set up the video camera and my dad and I went through them. Some were too personal but my dad (who is now 96) read others out loud while I filmed him. At the bottom of one of the boxes, I found three sealed envelopes of about 9 by 4 inches each.

"When I opened them, it was the negatives of 400 still photographs which my father hadn't gotten developed. I had a lab print each one as an 8 by 10 inch photo, and I saw my father's entire history in Karachi, Bombay and Calcutta and other cities in India during WWII."

"That was the first time I really became aware of what my father did in the war," said Spielberg, with a childlike sparkle in his eyes. "He spoke about it a lot to me but I didn't really have any visual references. And what I saw looked beautiful and extremely friendly. There are lots of photos of Indian kids just running around jeeps and hanging out with these young American servicemen?my dad was the oldest at 27?and brilliant shots of elephants and cows and people and marketplaces and bazaars! Just the day-to-day lifestyle of India was so vivid."

Speaking of Indian settings, it has been several decades since Spielberg shot in India (for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, released in 1977, as well as Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, in 1984). So does he have any plans to film a movie in India again? "We have finalized a script for a movie that DreamWorks (the studio he co-owns) and our partners Reliance Entertainment plan to make together. Part of it will take place on the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir. But we're still trying to figure out the casting, locations and who's going to direct it," said the filmmaker, dressed, as he often is, in a jacket and tie over a pair of jeans.

Now that he has an Indian company as a partner, has he caught up with Bollywood films? "Not a lot," he confessed. "Though I have seen excerpts of many. Among the movies I've seen, I loved '3 Idiots'. A long time ago, I saw the Indian classics ? Raj Kapoor, Satyajit Ray. I loved Awaara. I thought it was a beautifully made, heart-rending story?a father putting his own son on trial." We couldn't help wondering if it was just a coincidence that his two favourite Indian movies were both directed by men named Raj (Raj Kapoor and Rajkumar Hirani).

What about Indian actors? "I've seen Mr Bachchan's work in 'The Great Gatsby'. He's a wonderful actor and an iconic figure and his legend has carried all the way to America," said Spielberg. Does he foresee any chance of a Bollywood collaboration? "A script hasn't come along for that wonderful opportunity," he replied.

At 66, Spielberg still retains a childlike fascination for the movies. That his mind is sharp becomes immediate apparent but there's also an other-wordly innocence to him?a bit like Gandalf and Hobbit, two contrasting characters from Lord of the Rings, rolled into one.

He is still basking in the success of 'Lincoln', which won Daniel Day-Lewis the Oscar for best male actor ("Frankly, the kind of money it made surprised me," confessed Spielberg candidly). It is his third film after The Colour Purple (1985) and Amistad (1997) that deals with slavery and the civil rights struggle. What is it about the issue that keeps drawing him back to it?

"DreamWorks-Reliance is also planning a movie on Martin Luther King Jr. I wouldn't call it a biopic, it's more a story of King and the movement and also about how his admiration for Mahatma Gandhi helped to shape his moral core," replied Spielberg. "About the slavery issue, it's very hard for me to wrap my mind around how a group of people could ever?for profit or power?enslave another group of people.

In a sense, 'Schindler's List' (the 1993 film that won him the first of his two Oscars for best director) explored the same issue. "When I don't understand something, I become rather compulsive about exploring it. I'm endlessly amazed by how one group could enslave another and not think it was wrong until an entire war was fought to prove right from wrong. Part of it is also because of growing up as a Jewish child and experiencing discrimination and anti-Semitism and also about hearing the story of how Moses delivered the Hebrews from the Pharaohs in Egypt. All my formative years were infused with these stories of man's penchant for enslaving others?and also for liberating them!"

Has the recent recession hit Hollywood hard? "In 2008, film-going dipped because people were tightening their belts. But I think the motion pictures and TV are, in fact, recession-proof. Sometimes, the worse things get, the more people will find the means to be able to escape into someone else's imagination," he said.

However, he quickly added. "It's no longer just movies and TV. We also have to consider the cellphone as a platform entertainment device. We should never forget that the only thing that really hurts the movies today is the amount of time young people spend on phones, and skypeing and tweeting and texting. Also, very often, a good movie is sustained by instant texts that go out all over the world. It's no longer about just word of mouth, it's also how fast your fingers can type."

Does he spend any time looking at the company's finances or does he just focus on the creative aspects? "I'm very aware of the balance sheet, though Stacey Snider (co-chairperson and CEO of DreamWorks) is really the one who's very involved and interfaces with Reliance Entertainment on a regular basis. I share the burden of responsibility with Stacey to try to make really good movies that return their investment. We think it's wrong to make movies that simply are being made to make the most amount of money. I wouldn't have made 'Lincoln' had I thought that my criterion had to be commercial success before artistic content. 'Lincoln' made more money than many action movies, but I guess in the movie business, there's room for surprise."

In a career spanning over four decades, Spielberg has directed just 29 movies, while producing almost 350. So how does he decide when to direct a movie? "When something seizes me and doesn't let me breathe until I give up and give in and say 'OK, OK, I'll do it', those are the films I direct," he laughed. "When I feel like my arm has been put into a half-nelson by the material and theme, I can't rest till I've finished the movie."

As a producer, is he ever tempted to ghost-direct a movie? "If it's a film I've nurtured from birth?where I've chosen the writer, director and cast, then I get a little bit more hands-on, but never to the point that I'll overrule a director if he or she insists on doing it his/her way. I'll offer my notes and comments and the director is welcome to use them if he agrees. But I've always believed that if the director has a strong point of view, then once he's started it's become his movie, which is how I like to be treated myself."

Many of his movies have revolved around all-American themes and characters. So why does he think they have become such big hits globally? "I think the world is increasingly on the same page, especially now that it is becoming more acquainted with itself through social media and faster platforms of communication. So, certain movies do hit the same chord across cultures and countries," he said.

'Next Tintin by 2015-end'

It's something all Tintin fans desperately want to know. So, we put the question to Spielberg?when is the sequel out? "Peter Jackson is directing the next one, I'm producing. We have a script and we're going to start performance capture probably at the end of this year.

"Don't hold me to it, but we're hoping the film will come out around Christmas-time in 2015. We know which books we're making, we can't share that now but we're combining two books which were always intended to be combined by Herge." Smiling impishly, refused to confirm or deny the guesses we hazarded but when specifically asked about 'The Blue Lotus', said it would probably be the third Tintin film.
 
russds said:
Nice article, thanks for sharing. I've always found Spielberg fascinating, good candid interview too. Thanks!

There was a Temple TidBit I read in another Indian article:

Spielberg was being interviewed by Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan at a meet in which about 60 Hindi film directors participated.

Thirty years ago when I came to India (to shoot) for Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom, I backpacked to see places like Manali, Jaipur, and the whole of north India. But the city of Kolkata stayed on my mind.

Who knew he went back packing?
 
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Stoo

Well-known member
Le Saboteur said:
After having the opportunity to see the full ten-hour version of Abel Gance's Napoleon, last year I'm not sure anything ever needs to be done. Though, if he picks Philippe Torreton to reprise the role of L'Empereur I'll be there. Torreton's performance is definitive.
*10* hours?:confused: I've seen the 4 hour and have read about a 5-6 hour version but not 10! I envy you, Sabo.

Anyway, this is sweet news. I have my favourites of who played The Little Emperor on film but must admit, Philippe Torreton did a good job.
 

russds

New member
Rocket Surgeon said:
There was a Temple TidBit I read in another Indian article:

Yeah, I actually thought it was interesting the article was from an Indian newspaper. It must be an interesting subject, because ToD portrayed Indian's pretty negatively, and back in the day, I think the negativity was more poignant.


As I was reading the article, I was thinking, would the author bring up ToD? Is that a touchy subject? Did Spielberg know (or ask) going in to the interview that they wouldn't talk about ToD, or controversy, or has it been so many years, that that hatchet has been burred?

I guess ultimately I'm glad it wasn't brought up with negativity, but I think it would be interesting to know if Indian's (in general) still don't like ToD, how they feel about it now..30'ish years later. Especially in light of Spielberg's huge success as a film maker and his later films employing themes of Holocaust, war, etc.
 
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