Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg (Cincinnati, Ohio, December 18, 1946) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is considered one of the pioneers of the New Hollywood era and He is also one of the most recognized and popular directors in the world film industry.

In his films, Spielberg has dealt with very diverse themes and genres. His early science fiction and adventure films, such as Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the Indiana Jones franchise, and E.T., the extra-terrestrial (1982), are considered archetypes of the escape cinema of modern Hollywood. In later years he began to address humanist issues such as the Holocaust, the Atlantic slave trade, civil and political rights, war and terrorism in films such as The Color Purple (1985), The Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Schindler's List (1993), Friendship (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Munich (2005), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012) or Bridge of Spies (2015).

Nominated seven times for the Oscars in the Best Director category, he won the award twice, with Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Three of his films ( Jaws , E.T., The Alien and Jurassic Park) managed to be the highest-grossing films of their time and became true mass phenomena. He has also been awarded the Order of the British Empire and the National Humanities Medal. Comic fan, he has a large collection.

In show business he is known as "Hollywood's King Midas". According to Forbes magazine, Spielberg's net worth is US$3.7 billion. films worldwide, without adjusting prices for inflation, exceed $10 billion, making him the highest-grossing film director in history. His long association with composer John Williams has produced some one of the most iconic soundtracks in film history.

Early Years

She was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. Her mother, Leah Adler, was a pianist and restaurateur, and his father, Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer who was involved in the development of computers, spent his childhood with his mother in Haddon Heights, New Jersey, and Scottsdale, Arizona.). During his teenage years, he became fond of making 8mm movies with his friends. His first short was shot at the Pinnacle Peak Patio restaurant in Scottsdale. Included in the film was the staging of the wreckage of a train wreck prepared with his Lionel, LLC model.

In 1958, he became a scout and, to earn his merit badge, made a nine-minute 8mm short called Duel. Spielberg recalled the fact years later in an interview: "I asked the scoutmaster if he could tell a story with my father's movie camera. He said yes, and I had the idea of making a western. I did it and I got my merit badge. That's how it all began. At thirteen, he won an award for a 40-minute war film called Escape to Nowhere., which was based on a battle in East Africa. In 1964, at age eighteen, he wrote and directed his first independent film, a 130-minute science fiction adventure called Firelight (which would later inspire Close Encounters of the Third Kind). The film, which had a budget of $500, was shown at the local cinema and managed to collect $501, generating a profit of one dollar. He also made several films about World War II, inspired by war stories told by your father.

After her parents' divorce, she moved with her father to Saratoga, California, while her three sisters and her mother remained in Arizona. She attended Arcadia High School in Phoenix for three years and graduated from Saratoga High School in 1965. It was during this time that she achieved the rank of Eagle Scout.

Spielberg attended synagogue as a child in Haddon Heights and also attended Hebrew school between 1953 and 1957, classes taught by Rabbi Albert L. Lewis. As a child he found it difficult to accept the religion of his family. "It's not something I like to admit," he once said, "but when I was 7 or 8, God forgive me, I was ashamed to say we were Orthodox Jews. I was embarrassed by my parents' Jewish practices. I was never really ashamed of being a Jew, but I did feel uncomfortable at times. My grandfather always wore a long black coat, black hat, and long white beard. I was ashamed to invite my friends over, because he could be in a corner praying and I didn't know how to explain this to my friends'. He has also recounted that he suffered anti-Semitic acts during his early years: "In high school, they beat me up and left a bloody nose, it was horrible...".

After moving to California, she applied to the University of Southern California School of Theater, Film and Television three times, but was unsuccessful. He later attended California State University, Long Beach, where he was a member of the Theta Chi fraternity. In 1994, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the CSU, and in 1996 he became a member of the university council. His real career began when he joined Universal Studios as an unpaid intern, employed seven days a week as a collaborator of the editing department. He made his first short film for its presentation in theaters, with the 26-minute film Amblin & # 39; (1968), whose title he later used to name the production company he, Amblin Entertainment.

Career as a director

1970s

After being hired by the television division of the Universal production company, (which according to legend, occurred after being caught one night while hanging around the studio sets), he began directing episodes of series such as Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969-1976) and Columbo (1971-2003), but the unexpected success of the film version of his telefilm Duel (El diablo sobre ruedas, 1971) led him to premiere his first feature film in 1974, The Sugarland Express (Loca evasión). Although it was not released until the director's successful career, the film was critically successful (it has a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes) and box office. Universal placed enough trust in him to shoot Jaws (Jaws, 1975), a big-budget film with extremely rough shooting that became one of the highest grossing titles history and established the modern blockbuster model, with high marketing costs and special effects. Later, in 1977, George Lucas helped consolidate the foundations of the new "commercial cinema" with his space opera Star Wars (Star Wars). Since then, Spielberg and Lucas have maintained a great friendship.

Spielberg turned down directing Jaws 2, King Kong and Superman: The Movie, to develop that story he had written in his teens. Thus, in 1977, he premiered Close Encounters of the Third Kind , which was a great success and consolidated him as the new "King Midas" of Hollywood cinema. In 1979 1941< was released. /i>, an attempt to venture into comedy that was a failure. In the words of Lucas: "Steves direction was brilliant; the idea, terrible".

1980s

Spielberg and Chandran Rutnam in Sri Lanka during the shooting Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

As lovers of the old Hollywood adventure movies from the 20s and 30s, Lucas proposed to Spielberg to write a story with an archaeologist adventurer as the main character. The director accepted the challenge, and cast Harrison Ford as the lead, whom he had loved in his role as Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back. For that same reason Lucas refused, at first, but finally the actor got the role of Dr. Indiana Jones. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) was fraught with problems, but it became one of the biggest hits of the decade and revitalized the adventure genre.

While shooting that film, he decided to return to the subject that most interested him: space and its inhabitants. That is why, after finishing Indiana Jones , he turned to what, for many, is his masterpiece. In 1982, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial became the highest-grossing film of all time, after surpassing Star Wars, until in 1993 it was displaced by Jurassic Park , also directed by Spielberg. Spielberg became one of the greatest filmmakers of his time and even in the history of cinema. The director of Gandhi (1982), Richard Attenborough, declared: "I was sure that not only E.T. could win, but that he would win. It was inventive, powerful, and wonderful. I make more mundane movies.” In 1984 he directed the Indiana Jones prequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom . From that moment on, he alternated his role as producer with that of director, with greater success in the former ( Gremlins from 1984 and Back to the Future from 1985) than in the second. Although his subsequent films were not flops, The Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987) and Always (1989) were quite different from his previous projects.

After three films that left much to be desired by critics and the box office (although they were not considered "bad"), towards the end of the year Spielberg returned with the third part of Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) was a success, casting Sean Connery as the archaeologist's father.

1990s

Spielberg in 1990

In 1991, he decided to tackle the Disney classics he had seen in his childhood, choosing the Peter Pan story. version, which would be a continuation of the known story. Michael Jackson was originally going to be Peter Pan, but due to various inconveniences the role fell to comedian Robin Williams. Hook was a success, although it did not enjoy the popularity of his other films.

Spielberg in 1993

In 1993, Spielberg continued his trend of releasing, some years, two films at the same time (a trend that began in 1989 and would repeat in 1997, 2002, 2005 and 2011). The first was Jurassic Park , which revolutionized special effects in the 1990s. Also from 1993 is Schindler's List for which he received an Oscar for Best Director and another for Best Film.

In 1997 he released Amistad and The Lost World: Jurassic Park, a sequel to the 1993 installment, and which would be the last in the franchise with Spielberg as director (although did not leave his duties as producer). The following year he chose to return to World War II stories with Saving Private Ryan, which earned him his second Best Director Oscar.

2000s

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) was another of his films questioned by the box office, critics and audiences, despite being a tribute to Stanley Kubrick. The following year he premiered Catch Me If You Can (2002), with Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks. In that same year he also released Minority Report. In 2004, Spielberg handed over the leading role to Hanks again, this time in The Terminal.

Spielberg was slammed by critics on the one hand, and by fans on the other. First with Munich (2005), which portrayed the Palestinian terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics (known as the Munich Massacre). Neither party liked the film: the Jews put it on their blacklist and the pro-Palestinians were annoyed by that fairness. Spielberg defended himself against such criticism by saying: "If necessary, he would be willing to die, both for the United States and for Israel."

In 2005, he also released The War of the Worlds, which for many was an incredible movie portraying the Orson Welles version, but for the defenders of the latter and the fans of the original version, Spielberg's was not found at the same height. Lucas convinced him to come back with the delayed fourth installment of Indiana Jones. Much questioned before its release, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) did not receive such bad reviews. Roger Ebert rated it 3.5 out of 4 stars, arguing "I can say that if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will probably like this one too. If you didn't like them, then we're not understanding each other'. James Berardinelli gave the film 2 stars out of 4, mentioning "the wisest curse has left fans with only their memories".

2010s

Spielberg in 2012

Spielberg at the 2013 Cannes Festival, where he was president of the jury.

In 2011 he released two films, first The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, celebrated for its motion capture animation but largely ignored at the Oscars (it only got a nomination for Best Original Score), but won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature.

He has been an avid follower of The Adventures of Tintin, which he discovered in 1981 when an article compared Raiders of the Lost Ark to Tintin. His secretary bought him the French editions of each book. Meanwhile, the creator of the comic, Hergé, who hated previous live-action or cartoon film versions, became a fan of Spielberg. Michael Farr, author of Tintin: Complet Companion, recalled that Hergé "thought Spielberg was the only person who could do Tintin justice". Spielberg and his producing partner, Kathleen Kennedy of Amblin Entertainment, were scheduled to meet with Hergé in 1983, but the author died that week and his widow decided to give them the rights. But it was not until his meeting with Peter Jackson that the project began to be prepared. Jackson, who had long been fascinated with 3-D cinema, was impressed by recent advances in the format. Spielberg and Jackson agreed that a live-action adaptation would not do the comic books justice and that animation would be the best way to portray the world of Tintin.

Also in 2011, he released another war film, set in World War I, War Horse. In 2012, she released Lincoln, the film about the American hero.

In 2014, he announced that he was working on a series about Halo with 343 Industries, available to premium Xbox Live users only through an Xbox One.

Projects

Spielberg in the promotion of the film The BFG at the Festival de Cannes 2016

In September 2008, he revealed that he had obtained the rights to John Wyndham's novel, Chocky; since he was interested in directing his film adaptation. In 2009, he reported that he was trying to obtain the rights to the video game franchise Halo to make a movie. Although there are no updates about the future of the project, Spielberg is working on a series based on the franchise. In May 2009, he acquired the rights to produce and direct a biopic about Martin Luther King, Jr.. However, it has not yet been made clear whether the project has been fully approved.

In February 2013, Gary K. Wolf confirmed that The Walt Disney Company was working on a prequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. It is unknown if Spielberg is working on the project, although from the beginning that the sequel was planned, he was working on it. On April 5, 2014, Richard Donner announced that a sequel to The Goonies was in production. However, it is unknown if Spielberg will be involved in the production, although he has expressed interest in producing the sequel in the past.

His next film was a film adaptation of the novel Ready Player One, which was originally set for a December 15, 2017 release date, but was changed to March 30, 2018 to avoid competition with Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi. Following production on the film, Spielberg will direct the adaptation of David Kertzer's novel, The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.

On March 15, 2016, The Walt Disney Company announced that Spielberg would direct the fifth installment of Indiana Jones. Said sequel would have Harrison Ford as Indy, Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy as producers, and David Koepp as a writer (who wrote the final script for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).

Spielberg has also been hired to direct Cortes, an adaptation of the life of Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, and his relationship with the Aztec king Moctezuma. The script is based on one he wrote in 1965, Oscar winner Dalton Trumbo. The project will have the participation of Spanish actor Javier Bardem as Cortés. He has also been hired to direct an adaptation of journalist Lynsey Addario's biographical novel, It's What I Do. Jennifer Lawrence has been cast in the lead role.

In addition, Spielberg plans to spend $200 million to produce the film adaptation of Daniel H. Wilson's novel, Robopocalypse, to be directed by Drew Goddard. Like Lincoln, the film will be made by The Walt Disney Company and by Fox. It was originally to be released on April 25, 2014, starring Anne Hathaway and Liam Hemsworth, but in January 2013, Spielberg changed the release date, with no official release date confirmed yet.

Spielberg has also stated that he is interested in directing film adaptations of A Steady Rain, Pirate Latitudes, The 39 Clues; and he also commented on directing a remake of When Worlds Collide . He is also currently directing a remake of West Side Story. Sequels to Paul and Real Steel have been proposed by Simon Pegg and DreamWorks respectively, but it is unknown if Spielberg will be involved in the production.

He produced the sequel to Jurassic World, which was released in 2015, and has confirmed two sequels to The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. The first sequel will be released on December 16, 2016. However, Spielberg seems to have left the project, because none of those involved have confirmed that he will direct the second part.

The script of Kubrick's never-realized project, Napoleon.

Same way as with A.I. Artificial intelligence, Spielberg has the support of Jan Harlan and the rest of the Kubrick family to create a miniseries, produced by HBO, about the canceled Napoleon biographical project.

Career as a producer

Spielberg in 1999

Spielberg has produced Poltergeist, Transformers, The Flintstones, Casper, Men in Black, Deep Impact, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future and The Mask of Zorro among others. Also, during the 1990s, he produced cartoons such as The Adventures of Tiny Toons, Phenomenoid, Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs. (the most watched cartoons in North America in the 1990s).

In addition to his own production company (Amblin Entertainment), he founded DreamWorks SKG with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen in 1994. This studio is responsible for films such as American Beauty, Gladiator, Castaway, Memoirs of a Geisha and computer animation Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, among others.

Spielberg also created the video game series Medal of Honor and Boom Blox.

Poltergeist

Spielberg had two projects in mind: E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Poltergeist. Since he could not direct both films at the same time, since the "Director's Guild of America" regulations prohibit directing two films at the same time, he opted for the first, leaving the second in the hands of Tobe Hooper, responsible of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) despite the fact that the script had been written by Spielberg, along with Michael Grais and Mark Victor, based on a plot of his own, all based on his childhood fears. Although Spielberg has always categorically denied it, it was he who was in charge of shooting the entire film, despite the fact that his previous intention was to leave it to his colleague. Spielberg didn't like how Hopper filmed some scenes and so he began advising him on how to direct. All those who were present during the filming coincide in pointing out that Hopper was always on the set, but that Spielberg was like his shadow; some, like the main actor Craig T. Nelson, say that Hopper directed all the scenes and others, like Jerry Goldsmith, author of the soundtrack, say that Spielberg passed completely by his colleague. "I would like to believe that Hopper directed it, that I like it better than Spielberg, but deep down I am of the other opinion, like almost all other mortals."

Transformers

Spielberg, like other producers, had the idea of making the Transformers movie, like former studio executive Lorenzo di Bonaventura, as well as Hasbro's chief operating officer, Brian Goldner, among others. When all was said and done, the creative force behind the film put together something of a Hollywood production dream team. To meet that goal and at the same time satisfy fans of these robots, Spielberg and his team decided to find a director with enough skill and experience to take on the challenge of combining a fantastic story, special effects and plenty of action.

“I thought of Michael Bay because I think he's perfect for Transformers. He has the necessary touch and a very clear vision of what this movie could be like," said Spielberg, "So we gave him full freedom to breathe life into the humans, the Autobots and the Decepticons, although I have to tell you something: in At first, he turned down the project, but when he found out how interested I was in it, that's when he agreed.

"I've been one of the biggest fans of Transformers since its inception, I think I'm the number one fan," said the executive producer. «I am not talking about buying toys for my children; I'm talking about reading the comics and buying the toys for myself," says Spielberg.

The film's plot centers on the rise of the evil Decepticons, who are about to gain ultimate power, but whose last link falls into the hands of a human, young Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), who acquires a car that turns out to be more than that.

Finding Oscar

In April 2017, the documentary Findig Óscar (Buscando a Óscar) produced by Spielberg together with Frank Marshall, which tells the story of a Guatemalan man, Óscar Alfredo, premiered. Ramírez, one of the survivors of the massacre in the village of Las Dos Erres, which occurred in 1982 and who from one day to the next, must face this reality, which until a few years ago was totally unknown to him. During the filming stage they were assisted by the journalist of Salvadoran origin, Ana Arana, a correspondent in Latin America for more than 30 years.

Collaborations

Star of Steven Spielberg on Hollywood Fame Walk

Spielberg often works with actors and crew members from his previous films. For example, he cast actor Richard Dreyfuss in several films: Jaws , Close Encounters of the Third Kind , and Always . Spielberg has also collaborated with Harrison Ford before as the school principal in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (although the scene was ultimately cut). Although Spielberg directed it only once (Raiders of the Lost Ark). Voice actor Frank Welker has provided his voice in several Spielberg productions, such as Gremlins or its sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, as well as The Land Before Time (and lending his voice to its sequels which Spielberg has not participated in), Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and television shows such as Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, SeaQuest DSV. In recent years, and on several occasions, he has worked with Tom Hanks in films such as Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, "The Terminal, "Bridge of Spies" and "The Post". Spielberg has also collaborated with Tom Cruise on Minority Report and The War of the Worlds and has launched the hit Shia LaBeouf in five films: Transformers, Eagle Eye, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Spielberg prefers to work with members of the production with whom he has developed a working relationship. One such example is his producing relationship with Kathleen Kennedy, who has served as a producer on all of his major films since E.T., The Extra-Terrestrial. Other working relationships include Allen Daviau, a childhood friend and photographer who shot Spielberg's filmAmblin',and most of his films up to Empire of the Sun; Janusz Kaminski, who has worked on every Spielberg film since Schindler's List; and editor Michael Kahn, who has edited every film directed by Spielberg (except E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial).

An example of Spielberg working with the same professionals is his collaboration with John Williams and the use of their musical scores in all of his films since The Sugarland Express (with the exception of The Color Purple and Twilight Zone: The Movie). One of his trademarks is the use of Williams' music to heighten the visual impact of scenes of him trying to create a lasting image and sound of the film in the memory of the movie audience. These visual scenes often use the images of the sun, for example, Empire of the Sun, Saving Private Ryan, the final scene of Jurassic Park, and the end credits of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (where they embark at sunset), the latter two of which feature a score by Williams in that final scene. Spielberg is one of the contemporary filmmakers along with George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, John Milius, and Brian De Palma, collectively known as the "Movie Brats." In addition to his primary role as director, Spielberg has acted as a producer on a considerable number of films, including early hits by Joe Dante and Robert Zemeckis.

Cameo

Spielberg has made cameo appearances in The Blues Brothers, Gremlins, Vanilla Sky, Back to the Future and Austin Powers in Goldmember, as well as minor uncredited cameos in other films. He also did numerous cameo roles in cartoons that Warner Brothers produced, such as Animaniacs, and even referenced some of his movies. Spielberg voiced himself in an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures titled Buster and Babs Go Hawaiian. And in the video game Ratchet & Clank 3 the latter made spy movies in which the director had some similarities to Spielberg. He also participated in the video clip of his friend Michael Jackson, "Liberian Girl".

Private life

Spielberg was married from 1985 to 1989 to American actress Amy Irving. In 1991 he married again, this time to actress Kate Capshaw, whom he met during auditions for the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom .

Spielberg is not only recognized for his work as a director, but also for his philanthropic efforts for World War II organizations and the Righteous Persons Foundation, which donates money to various Jewish projects, especially Holocaust memorial organizations. He is also on the Board of Trustees for the California State University School of Film-Television. ^{[citation required]}

Filmography

Steven Spielberg at the 2013 Cannes Festival

Awards and nominations

Oscar

BAFTA

Golden Globe

Venice International Film Festival

San Sebastian International Film Festival

Other acknowledgments

Spielberg also received the United States Navy's Distinguished Public Service Award for Saving Private Ryan, the John Huston Award for Artists Rights, and the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award. In addition, he has a wax sculpture at Madame Tussauds and at the Mexico City Wax Museum.