Official: Spielberg's next film will be...

Very exciting news broke from Deadline Hollywood today - Steven Spielberg has chosen his next film.

Deadline's Mike Fleming had the scoop that Spielberg will start shooting screenwriter Drew Goddard's adaptation of the Daniel H. Wilson's epic sci-fi novel Robopocalpse in January 2012. Disney's Touchstone will release the film in 2013 (I'm guessing in a prime summer slot).

According to the report, Spielberg has been tempted to film the novel since March last year, but due to the fact that the novel wasn't finished he put it on the backburner and concentrated his efforts on War Horse. That said, "Spielberg was so excited about it that it was already being storyboarded and designed as Wilson was turning in pages of the book and Goddard was translating them into the screenplay" Fleming reports.

Dreamworks have now confirmed the news with a press release:

Los Angeles, CA – Steven Spielberg is set to direct “Robopocalypse,” it was announced today by Mark Sourian and Holly Bario, Co-Presidents of Production for DreamWorks Studios. Based on the novel of the same name by Daniel H. Wilson, Spielberg will begin principal photography on the futuristic tale in January 2012. Disney’s Touchstone will distribute the film in 2013.

Exploring the fate of the human race following a robot uprising, “Robopocalypse” has been adapted for the screen by Drew Goddard.

DreamWorks acquired the rights to Wilson’s unpublished manuscript back in November 2009. Publishing rights were acquired by Doubleday and they plan to release the book in June 2011.

“’Robopocalypse’ embodies an imaginative story of a robot rebellion unleashed against the human race," said Mark Sourian. “This is a project we immediately sparked to and with Steven directing it we knew it was in the best possible hands to bring it to worldwide audiences.”

Robopocalypse has been a project that's been mentioned as a possible Spielberg directing gig since March last year and late last month the rumours started up again.

As far as Robopocalypse the novel is concerned, Deadline has this to say:
Doubleday will publish the book June, 2011. Wilson is hot stuff, in the kind of hi-tech sci-fi terrain that was the domain of Michael Crichton. His rep, Justin Manask, is preparing to shop his next book, AMP, which is a near-future science fiction thriller set in a world where the technology to make the disabled whole, turns them into supermen. That book will also be published by Doubleday, with 120 pages done so far. This one is being eyed for summer, 2012.

Robots are certainly terrain Spielberg has covered in the past with AI, but since that was a project originated by Stanley Kubrick and one Spielberg designed around production art that Kubrick created, I can't even imagine what he has in store.

Bring on summer 2013!

Keep checking back for updates as I get them...

Read Michael Fleming's full story here

Spielberg + Bee Gees = Total BS

I don't quite know why I'm reporting this, but it's almost so crazy a rumour it's actually funny.

The UK's Daily Mail - easily one of the most disreputable tabloids in Britain - is reporting that Steven Spielberg is going to be making a movie based on the life story of The Bee Gees.

The only problem is, when you read the article it contains absolutely no facts to back up that statement.

The report, which is written as though the journalist has a source within the Spielberg camp ("The Oscar-winning director of ET believes the group’s journey from unknowns in Manchester to worldwide fame will prove box-office gold...") does have a quote from Bee Gee Robin Gibb, but even that has zero mention of Steven Spielberg.

"The movie is going to be done by some very important people," he says. "It will be our life story. Barry and I will be involved in the technical side."

So how the Daily Mail made the leap to Spielberg is anybody's guess.

Over the years Steven Spielberg has expressed an interest in doing a musical (before Hook, Spielberg's take on the Peter Pan story was to be a musical collaboration with Michael Jackson), but if this bizarre rumour ever comes true I will happily listen to the Bee Gees' back catalogue on repeat for 48 hours while being waterboarded.

War Horse pushed from August to December 2011

In a move that puts War Horse firmly in the race for Oscars, Dreamworks has decided to shift the Steven Spielberg-directed film's release date from August 12 to December 28, 2011.

What this means for moviegoers, in the USA at least, is that they'll be treated to TWO new Spielberg-directed films within the space of a week. That's because Tintin, the top secret motion-capture collaboration between Spielberg and Peter Jackson, is due for release in North America on December 23.

The decision came after Disney and Dreamworks executives were shown footage from the World War One epic,which is currently being shot in England, according to a report by Indiewire's Anne Thompson.

Dreamworks' Stacey Snider said: “The movie feels like a holiday movie. {Steven Spielberg) feels great about it. We feel great about it.”

Snider also goes on to say that War Horse, which is expected to be rated PG-13, shouldn't conflict too much with Sony/Paramount's Tintin. “We think there’s room for a couple of holiday movies during that season,” said Snider. “It’s a big market at that time of year.”

For Spielberg fans in Europe, Latin America and India they'll see The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn first, in late October and November 2011.

The Color Purple Blu-Ray in January 2011

Another Steven Spielberg film will soon be hitting stores in high-def, if reports are to be believed.
High Def Disc News are reporting that The Color Purple will be released on January 25 2011 to tie in with Black History Month.

No release specs have been revealed other than it looks like it'll be one of Warners' digi-book releases (ie a 40-page making-of book), with full 1080p Hi-Def video in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio and DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio sound.

High Def Disc News also provide a picture of the trade ad announcing the release of this under-rated Spielberg flick here

The Color Purple would join Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, War of the Worlds, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Twilight Zone: The Movie and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on the list of Spielberg-directed films available in HD. My earlier report about AI: Artificial Intelligence bowing on Blu-Ray on October 15 in Germany has sadly not come to pass...

New War Horse set spy photos

New pictures from the set of Steven Spielberg's new film War Horse have hit the web and reveal a picture postcard English village dressed to look like it would in World War One.

The photos don't show any cast or crew, but they do give a glimpse of the set-dressing in the village of Castle Combe.

According to a spy on Bleeding Cool "all the set dressing was done in ten hours, courtesy of a huge crew and over twenty night time security staff. And filming proper starts this Tuesday (September 21). The dressers have put out all fresh fruit and veg out, have changed door numbers, laid down the dirt road and stuck moss in all the right place. In fact five people were dedicated to moss dressing the sets. Reports are that they’re spending a lot of money making this look just right."

War Horse will be released on August 10, 2011.




Take a look at all the spy shots over at Bleeding Cool.

Judge clears Spielberg in Disturbia lawsuit

A judge has cleared Steven Spielberg of stealing the plot for Disturbia from a short story.

Although the two films definitely share similarities - both are about someone who is confined to his home and becomes convinced that his neighbour is a killer - New York district court judge Laura Taylor Swan ruled that "the main plots are similar only at a high, unprotectable level of generality".

The suit was launched by the Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust, which manages the estate of the late author Cornell Woolrich. The writer's short story It Had to be Murder formed the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954).

The trust filed its complaint against Spielberg, DreamWorks and distributors Paramount Pictures back in 2008 and claimed that the short story's plot had been used without obtaining the Trust's permission.

But Swan added: "Where Disturbia is rife with sub-plots, the short story has none. The setting and mood of the short story are static and tense, whereas the setting and mood of Disturbia are more dynamic and peppered with humour and teen romance."

Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can heading to Broadway in Spring 2011

The musical version of Steven Spielberg's 2002 caper Catch Me If You Can will open on Broadway in the Spring of 2011, according to the producers.
Previews will begin on March 7, 2011 with the opening evening being set for April 10.
Here's Broadway bible Playbill's reporting of the announcement, which was made yesterday:

Catch Me If You Can, the new musical by Tony Award winners Scott Wittman, Marc Shaiman and Terrence McNally, will begin Broadway previews March 7, 2011, at a Nederlander theatre to be announced.
Hairspray songwriters Shaiman and Wittman penned the score to the musical based on the DreamWorks film of the same name (and the autobiography by Frank Abagnale Jr. and Stan Redding). Catch Me If You Can will officially open April 10, 2011.
In addition to Shaiman and Wittman, the musical will reunite several Broadway heavyweights who collaborated on the Tony-winning hit Hairspray, including director Jack O'Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell. Catch Me If You Can features a book by Tony Award-winning playwright McNally (Kiss of the Spider Woman, Ragtime, Master Class).
The musical was seen in an earlier incarnation in late 2009 at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle, where Hairspray also played its pre-Broadway try-out. Margo Lion and Hal Luftig are lead producers of the Broadway engagement.