Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18,
1946) is an American filmmaker. He is considered
one of the founding pioneers of the New Hollywood
era and one of the most popular directors
and producers in film history. Spielberg started
in Hollywood directing television and several
minor theatrical releases. He became a household
name as the director of Jaws (1975), which
was critically and commercially successful
and is considered the first summer blockbuster.
His subsequent releases focused typically
on science fiction and adventure films, and
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977),
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
(1982), and Jurassic Park (1993) are seen
as archetypes of modern Hollywood escapist
filmmaking.Spielberg transitioned into addressing
serious issues in his later work with The
Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987),
Schindler's List (1993), Amistad (1997), and
Saving Private Ryan (1998). He has largely
adhered to this practice during the 21st century,
with Munich (2005), Lincoln (2012), Bridge
of Spies (2015), and The Post (2017). He co-founded
Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks Studios,
where he has also served as a producer or
executive producer for several successful
film trilogies, tetralogies and more including
the Gremlins, Back to the Future, Men in Black,
and the Transformers series. He later transitioned
into producing several games within the video-game
industry.
Spielberg is one of the American film industry's
most critically successful filmmakers, with
praise for his directing talent and versatility,
and he has won the Academy Award for Best
Director twice. Some of his movies are also
among the highest-grossing movies of all-time,
while his total work makes him the highest-grossing
film director in history. His net worth is
estimated to be more than $3 billion.
== Early life ==
Spielberg was born on December 18, 1946 in
Cincinnati, Ohio. His mother, Leah (née Posner,
later Adler; January 12, 1920 – February
21, 2017), was a restaurateur and concert
pianist, and his father, Arnold Spielberg
(born 1917), was an electrical engineer involved
in the development of computers. His family
was Orthodox Jewish. Spielberg's paternal
grandparents were Jewish Ukrainian immigrants
who settled in Cincinnati in the 1900s; his
grandmother was from Sudylkiv, while his grandfather
was from Kamianets-Podilskyi. In 1950, his
family moved to Haddon Township, New Jersey,
when his father took a job with RCA. Three
years later, the family moved to Phoenix,
Arizona. Spielberg attended Hebrew school
from 1953 to 1957, in classes taught by Rabbi
Albert L. Lewis.As a child, Spielberg faced
difficulty reconciling being an Orthodox Jew
with the perception of him by other children
he played with. "It isn't something I enjoy
admitting," he once said, "but when I was
seven, eight, nine years old, God forgive
me, I was embarrassed because we were Orthodox
Jews. I was embarrassed by the outward perception
of my parents' Jewish practices. I was never
really ashamed to be Jewish, but I was uneasy
at times." Spielberg also said he suffered
from acts of anti-Semitic prejudice and bullying:
"In high school, I got smacked and kicked
around. Two bloody noses. It was horrible."
At age 12, he made his first home movie: a
train wreck involving his toy Lionel trains.
Throughout his early teens, and after entering
high school, Spielberg continued to make amateur
8 mm "adventure" films.In 1958, he became
a Boy Scout and fulfilled a requirement for
the photography merit badge by making a nine-minute
8 mm film entitled The Last Gunfight. Years
later, Spielberg recalled to a magazine interviewer,
"My dad's still-camera was broken, so I asked
the scoutmaster if I could tell a story with
my father's movie camera. He said yes, and
I got an idea to do a Western. I made it and
got my merit badge. That was how it all started."
At age 13, while living in Phoenix, Spielberg
won a prize for a 40-minute war film he titled
Escape to Nowhere... using a cast composed
of other high school friends. That motivated
him to make 15 more amateur 8 mm films.Some
of the films he cited as early influences
that he grew up watching include the Godzilla
kaiju film King of the Monsters (1956), which
he called "the most masterful of all the dinosaur
movies because it made you believe it was
really happening", as well as titles such
as Captains Courageous (1937), Pinocchio (1940),
and particularly Lawrence of Arabia (1962),
which he cited as "the film that set me on
my journey". In 1963, at age 16, Spielberg
wrote and directed his first independent film,
a 140-minute science fiction adventure called
Firelight, which would later inspire Close
Encounters. The film was made for $500, most
of which came from his father, and was shown
in a local cinema for one evening, which earned
back its cost.After attending Arcadia High
School in Phoenix for three years, his family
next moved to Saratoga, California, where
he later graduated from Saratoga High School
in 1965. He attained the rank of Eagle Scout.
His parents divorced while he was still in
school, and soon after he graduated Spielberg
moved to Los Angeles, staying initially with
his father. His long-term goal was to become
a film director. His three sisters and mother
remained in Saratoga. In Los Angeles, he applied
to the University of Southern California's
film school, but was turned down because of
his "C" grade average. He then applied and
was admitted to California State University,
Long Beach, where he became a brother of Theta
Chi Fraternity.While still a student, he was
offered a small unpaid intern job at Universal
Studios with the editing department. He was
later given the opportunity to make a short
film for theatrical release, the 26-minute,
35 mm, Amblin', which he wrote and directed.
Studio vice president Sidney Sheinberg was
impressed by the film, which had won a number
of awards, and offered Spielberg a seven-year
directing contract. It made him the youngest
director ever to be signed for a long-term
deal with a major Hollywood studio. He subsequently
dropped out of college to begin professionally
directing TV productions with Universal. Spielberg
later returned to California State University,
Long Beach and completed his BA degree in
Film and Electronic Arts in 2002.
== Career ==
=== 1970s ===
His first professional TV job came when he
was hired to direct one of the segments for
the 1969 pilot episode of Night Gallery, written
by Rod Serling and starring Joan Crawford.
Crawford, however, was "speechless, and then
horrified" at the thought of a twenty-one-year-old
newcomer directing her, one of Hollywood's
leading stars. "Why was this happening to
me?" she asked the producer. Her attitude
changed after they began working on her scenes:
When I began to work with Steven, I understood
everything. It was immediately obvious to
me, and probably everyone else, that here
was a young genius. I thought maybe more experience
was important, but then I thought of all of
those experienced directors who didn't have
Steven's intuitive inspiration and who just
kept repeating the same old routine performances.
That was called "experience." I knew then
that Steven Spielberg had a brilliant future
ahead of him. Hollywood doesn't always recognize
talent, but Steven's was not going to be overlooked.
I told him so in a note I wrote him. I wrote
to Rod Serling, too. I was so grateful that
he had approved Steven as the director. I
told him he had been totally right.
She and Spielberg were reportedly close friends
until her death. The episode is unusual in
his body of work, in that the camerawork is
more highly stylized than his later, more
"mature" films. After this, and an episode
of Marcus Welby, M.D., Spielberg got his first
feature-length assignment: an episode of The
Name of the Game called "L.A. 2017". This
futuristic science fiction episode impressed
Universal Studios and they signed him to a
short contract. He did another segment on
Night Gallery and did some work for shows
such as Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law and
The Psychiatrist, before landing the first
series episode of Columbo (previous episodes
were actually TV films).
Based on the strength of his work, Universal
signed Spielberg to do four TV films. The
first was a Richard Matheson adaptation called
Duel. The film is about a psychotic Peterbilt
281 tanker truck driver who chases the terrified
driver (Dennis Weaver) of a small Plymouth
Valiant and tries to run him off the road.
Special praise of this film by the influential
British critic Dilys Powell was highly significant
to Spielberg's career. Another TV film (Something
Evil) was made and released to capitalize
on the popularity of The Exorcist, then a
major best-selling book which had not yet
been released as a film. He fulfilled his
contract by directing the TV film-length pilot
of a show called Savage, starring Martin Landau.
Spielberg's debut full-length feature film
was The Sugarland Express, about a married
couple who are chased by police as the couple
tries to regain custody of their baby. Spielberg's
cinematography for the police chase was praised
by reviewers, and The Hollywood Reporter stated
that "a major new director is on the horizon."
However, the film fared poorly at the box
office and received a limited release.
Studio producers Richard D. Zanuck and David
Brown offered Spielberg the director's chair
for Jaws, a thriller-horror film based on
the Peter Benchley novel about an enormous
killer shark. Spielberg has often referred
to the gruelling shoot as his professional
crucible. Despite the film's ultimate, enormous
success, it was nearly shut down due to delays
and budget over-runs. But Spielberg persevered
and finished the film. It was an enormous
hit, winning three Academy Awards (for editing,
original score and sound) and grossing more
than $470 million worldwide at the box office.
It also set the domestic record for box office
gross, leading to what the press described
as "Jawsmania." Jaws made Spielberg a household
name and one of America's youngest multi-millionaires,
allowing him a great deal of autonomy for
his future projects. It was nominated for
Best Picture and featured Spielberg's first
of three collaborations with actor Richard
Dreyfuss.
Rejecting offers to direct Jaws 2, King Kong
and Superman, Spielberg and actor Richard
Dreyfuss re-convened to work on a film about
UFOs, which became Close Encounters of the
Third Kind (1977). One of the rare films both
written and directed by Spielberg, Close Encounters
was a critical and box office hit, giving
Spielberg his first Best Director nomination
from the Academy as well as earning six other
Academy Awards nominations. It won Oscars
in two categories (Cinematography, Vilmos
Zsigmond, and a Special Achievement Award
for Sound Effects Editing, Frank E. Warner).
This second blockbuster helped to secure Spielberg's
rise. His next film, 1941, a big-budgeted
World War II farce, was not nearly as successful
and though it grossed over $92.4 million worldwide
(and did make a small profit for co-producing
studios Columbia and Universal) it was seen
as a disappointment, mainly with the critics.Spielberg
then revisited his Close Encounters project
and, with financial backing from Columbia
Pictures, released Close Encounters: The Special
Edition in 1980. For this, Spielberg fixed
some of the flaws he thought impeded the original
1977 version of the film and also, at the
behest of Columbia, and as a condition of
Spielberg revising the film, shot additional
footage showing the audience the interior
of the mothership seen at the end of the film
(a decision Spielberg would later regret as
he felt the interior of the mothership should
have remained a mystery). Nevertheless, the
re-release was a moderate success, while the
2001 DVD release of the film restored the
original ending.
=== 1980s ===
Next, Spielberg teamed with Star Wars creator
and friend George Lucas on an action adventure
film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first of
the Indiana Jones films. The archaeologist
and adventurer hero Indiana Jones was played
by Harrison Ford (whom Lucas had previously
cast in his Star Wars films as Han Solo).
The film was considered an homage to the cliffhanger
serials of the Golden Age of Hollywood. It
became the biggest film at the box office
in 1981, and the recipient of numerous Oscar
nominations including Best Director (Spielberg's
second nomination) and Best Picture (the second
Spielberg film to be nominated for Best Picture).
Raiders is still considered a landmark example
of the action-adventure genre. The film also
led to Ford's casting in Ridley Scott's Blade
Runner.A year later, Spielberg returned to
the science fiction genre with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
It was the story of a young boy and the alien
he befriends, who was accidentally left behind
by his companions and is attempting to return
home. E.T. went on to become the top-grossing
film of all time. It was also nominated for
nine Academy Awards including Best Picture
and Best Director, winning 4 of them.
Between 1982 and 1985, Spielberg produced
three high-grossing films: Poltergeist (for
which he also co-wrote the screenplay), a
big-screen adaptation of The Twilight Zone
(for which he directed the segment "Kick The
Can"), and The Goonies (Spielberg, executive
producer, also wrote the story on which the
screenplay was based). Spielberg appeared
in a cameo on Cyndi Lauper's music video for
the movie's theme song, "The Goonies 'R' Good
Enough".
His next directorial feature was the Raiders
prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Teaming up once again with Lucas and Ford,
the film was plagued with uncertainty for
the material and script. This film and the
Spielberg-produced Gremlins led to the creation
of the PG-13 rating due to the high level
of violence in films targeted at younger audiences.
In spite of this, Temple of Doom is rated
PG by the MPAA, even though it is the darkest
and, possibly, most violent Indy film. Nonetheless,
the film was still a huge blockbuster hit
in 1984. It was on this project that Spielberg
also met his future wife, actress Kate Capshaw.In
1985, Spielberg released The Color Purple,
an adaptation of Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning
novel of the same name, about a generation
of empowered African-American women during
depression-era America. Starring Whoopi Goldberg
and future talk-show superstar Oprah Winfrey,
the film was a box office smash and critics
hailed Spielberg's successful foray into the
dramatic genre. Roger Ebert proclaimed it
the best film of the year and later entered
it into his Great Films archive. The film
received eleven Academy Award nominations,
including two for Goldberg and Winfrey. However,
Spielberg did not get a Best Director nomination.
In 1987, as China began opening to Western
capital investment, Spielberg shot the first
American film in Shanghai since the 1930s,
an adaptation of J. G. Ballard's autobiographical
novel Empire of the Sun, starring John Malkovich
and a young Christian Bale. The film garnered
much praise from critics and was nominated
for several Oscars, but did not yield substantial
box office revenues. Reviewer Andrew Sarris
called it the best film of the year and later
included it among the best films of the decade.
Spielberg was also a co-producer of the 1987
film *batteries not included.
After two forays into more serious dramatic
films, Spielberg then directed the third Indiana
Jones film, 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last
Crusade. Once again teaming up with Lucas
and Ford, Spielberg also cast actor Sean Connery
in a supporting role as Indy's father. The
film earned generally positive reviews and
was another box office success, becoming the
highest-grossing film worldwide that year;
its total box office receipts even topped
those of Tim Burton's much-anticipated film
Batman, which had been the bigger hit domestically.
Also in 1989, he re-united with actor Richard
Dreyfuss for the romantic comedy-drama Always,
about a daredevil pilot who extinguishes forest
fires. Spielberg's first romantic film, Always
was only a moderate success and had mixed
reviews.
=== 1990s ===
In 1991, Spielberg directed Hook, about a
middle-aged Peter Pan, played by Robin Williams,
who returns to Neverland. Despite innumerable
rewrites and creative changes coupled with
mixed reviews, the film proved popular with
audiences, making over $300 million worldwide
(from a $70 million budget).
In 1993, Spielberg returned to the adventure
genre with the film version of Michael Crichton's
novel Jurassic Park, about a theme park with
genetically engineered dinosaurs. With revolutionary
special effects provided by friend George
Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic company,
the film would eventually become the highest-grossing
film of all time (at the worldwide box office)
with $914.7 million. This would be the third
time that one of Spielberg's films became
the highest-grossing film ever.
Spielberg's next film, Schindler's List, was
based on the true story of Oskar Schindler,
a man who risked his life to save 1,100 Jews
from the Holocaust. Schindler's List earned
Spielberg his first Academy Award for Best
Director (it also won Best Picture). With
the film a huge success at the box office,
Spielberg used the profits to set up the Shoah
Foundation, a non-profit organization that
archives filmed testimony of Holocaust survivors.
In 1997, the American Film Institute listed
it among the 10 Greatest American Films ever
Made (#9) which moved up to (#8) when the
list was remade in 2007.
In 1994, Spielberg took a hiatus from directing
to spend more time with his family and build
his new studio, DreamWorks, with partners
Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. In 1996,
he directed the sequel to 1993's Jurassic
Park with The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which
generated over $618 million worldwide despite
mixed reviews, and was the second biggest
film of 1997 behind James Cameron's Titanic
(which topped the original Jurassic Park to
become the new recordholder for box office
receipts).
His next film, Amistad, was based on a true
story (like Schindler's List), specifically
about an African slave rebellion. Despite
decent reviews from critics, it did not do
well at the box office. Spielberg released
Amistad under DreamWorks Pictures, which has
produced all of his films from Amistad onwards
with the exception of Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Adventures
of Tintin and Ready Player One.His 1998 theatrical
release was the World War II film Saving Private
Ryan, about a group of U.S. soldiers led by
Capt. Miller (Tom Hanks) sent to bring home
a paratrooper whose three older brothers were
killed in the same twenty-four hours, June
5–6, of the Normandy landing. The film was
a huge box office success, grossing over $481
million worldwide and was the biggest film
of the year at the North American box office
(worldwide it made second place after Michael
Bay's Armageddon). Spielberg won his second
Academy Award for his direction. The film's
graphic, realistic depiction of combat violence
influenced later war films such as Black Hawk
Down and Enemy at the Gates. The film was
also the first major hit for DreamWorks, which
co-produced the film with Paramount Pictures
(as such, it was Spielberg's first release
from the latter that was not part of the Indiana
Jones series). Later, Spielberg and Tom Hanks
produced a TV mini-series based on Stephen
Ambrose's book Band of Brothers. The ten-part
HBO mini-series follows Easy Company of the
101st Airborne Division's 506th Parachute
Infantry Regiment. The series won a number
of awards at the Golden Globes and the Emmys.
=== 2000s ===
In 2001, Spielberg filmed fellow director
and friend Stanley Kubrick's final project,
A.I. Artificial Intelligence which Kubrick
was unable to begin during his lifetime. A
futuristic film about a humanoid android longing
for love, A.I. featured groundbreaking visual
effects and a multi-layered, allegorical storyline,
adapted by Spielberg himself. Though the film's
reception in the US was relatively muted,
it performed better overseas for a worldwide
total box office gross of $236 million.
Spielberg and actor Tom Cruise collaborated
for the first time for the futuristic neo-noir
Minority Report, based upon the science fiction
short story written by Philip K. Dick about
a Washington D.C. police captain in the year
2054 who has been foreseen to murder a man
he has not yet met. The film received strong
reviews with the review tallying website Rotten
Tomatoes giving it a 92% approval rating,
reporting that 206 out of the 225 reviews
they tallied were positive. The film earned
over $358 million worldwide. Roger Ebert,
who named it the best film of 2002, praised
its breathtaking vision of the future as well
as for the way Spielberg blended CGI with
live-action.Spielberg's 2002 film Catch Me
If You Can is about the daring adventures
of a youthful con artist (played by Leonardo
DiCaprio). It earned Christopher Walken an
Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting
Actor. The film is known for John Williams's
score and its unique title sequence. It was
a hit both commercially and critically.Spielberg
collaborated again with Tom Hanks along with
Catherine Zeta-Jones and Stanley Tucci in
2004's The Terminal, a warm-hearted comedy
about a man of Eastern European descent who
is stranded in an airport. It received mixed
reviews but performed relatively well at the
box office. In 2005, Empire magazine ranked
Spielberg number one on a list of the greatest
film directors of all time.
Also in 2005, Spielberg directed a modern
adaptation of War of the Worlds (a co-production
of Paramount and DreamWorks), based on the
H. G. Wells book of the same name (Spielberg
had been a huge fan of the book and the original
1953 film). It starred Tom Cruise and Dakota
Fanning, and, as with past Spielberg films,
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) provided the
visual effects. Unlike E.T. and Close Encounters
of the Third Kind, which depicted friendly
alien visitors, War of the Worlds featured
violent invaders. The film was another huge
box office smash, grossing over $591 million
worldwide.
Spielberg's film Munich, about the events
following the 1972 Munich Massacre of Israeli
athletes at the Olympic Games, was his second
film essaying Jewish relations in the world
(the first being Schindler's List). The film
is based on Vengeance, a book by Canadian
journalist George Jonas. It was previously
adapted into the 1986 made-for-TV film Sword
of Gideon. The film received strong critical
praise, but underperformed at the U.S. and
world box-office; it remains one of Spielberg's
most controversial films to date. Munich received
five Academy Awards nominations, including
Best Picture, Film Editing, Original Music
Score (by John Williams), Best Adapted Screenplay,
and Best Director for Spielberg. It was Spielberg's
sixth Best Director nomination and fifth Best
Picture nomination.
In June 2006, Steven Spielberg announced he
would direct a scientifically accurate film
about "a group of explorers who travel through
a worm hole and into another dimension", from
a treatment by Kip Thorne and producer Lynda
Obst. In January 2007, screenwriter Jonathan
Nolan met with them to discuss adapting Obst
and Thorne's treatment into a narrative screenplay.
The screenwriter suggested the addition of
a "time element" to the treatment's basic
idea, which was welcomed by Obst and Thorne.
In March of that year, Paramount hired Nolan,
as well as scientists from Caltech, forming
a workshop to adapt the treatment under the
title Interstellar. The following July, Kip
Thorne said there was a push by people for
him to portray himself in the film. Spielberg
later abandoned Interstellar, which was eventually
directed by Christopher Nolan.Spielberg directed
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull, which wrapped filming in October 2007
and was released on May 22, 2008. This was
his first film not to be released by DreamWorks
since 1997. The film received generally positive
reviews from critics, and was financially
successful, grossing $786 million worldwide.
=== 2010s ===
In early 2009, Spielberg shot the first film
in a planned trilogy of motion capture films
based on The Adventures of Tintin, written
by Belgian artist Hergé, with Peter Jackson.
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the
Unicorn, was not released until October 2011,
due to the complexity of the computer animation
involved. The world premiere took place on
October 22, 2011 in Brussels, Belgium. The
film was released in North American theaters
on December 21, 2011, in Digital 3D and IMAX.
It received generally positive reviews from
critics, and grossed over $373 million worldwide.
The Adventures of Tintin won the award for
Best Animated Feature Film at the Golden Globe
Awards that year. It is the first non-Pixar
film to win the award since the category was
first introduced. Jackson has been announced
to direct the second film.Spielberg followed
with War Horse, shot in England in the summer
of 2010. It was released just four days after
The Adventures of Tintin, on December 25,
2011. The film, based on the novel of the
same name written by Michael Morpurgo and
published in 1982, follows the long friendship
between a British boy and his horse Joey before
and during World War I – the novel was also
adapted into a hit play in London which is
still running there, as well as on Broadway.
Distributed by Walt Disney Studios, with whom
DreamWorks made a distribution deal in 2009,
War Horse was the first of four consecutive
Spielberg films released by Disney. War Horse
received generally positive reviews from critics,
and was nominated for six Academy Awards,
including Best Picture.Spielberg next directed
the historical drama film Lincoln, starring
Daniel Day-Lewis as United States President
Abraham Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary Todd
Lincoln. Based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's bestseller
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham
Lincoln, the film covered the final four months
of Lincoln's life. Written by Tony Kushner,
the film was shot in Richmond, Virginia, in
late 2011, and was released in the United
States in November 2012. Upon release, Lincoln
received widespread critical acclaim, and
was nominated for twelve Academy Awards (the
most of any film that year) including Best
Picture and Best Director for Spielberg. It
won the award for Best Production Design and
Day-Lewis won the Academy Award for Best Actor
for his portrayal of Lincoln, becoming the
first three-time winner in that category as
well as the first to win for a performance
directed by Spielberg.
It was announced on May 2, 2013, that Spielberg
would direct the film about the story of U.S.
sniper Chris Kyle, titled American Sniper.
However, on August 5, 2013, it was announced
that Spielberg had decided not to direct the
film, which was instead directed by Clint
Eastwood.
Spielberg directed 2015's Bridge of Spies,
a Cold War thriller based on the 1960 U-2
incident, and focusing on James B. Donovan's
negotiations with the Soviets for the release
of pilot Gary Powers after his aircraft was
shot down over Soviet territory. The film
starred Tom Hanks as Donovan, as well as Mark
Rylance, Amy Ryan, and Alan Alda, with a script
by the Coen brothers. The film was shot from
September to December 2014 on location in
New York City, Berlin and Wroclaw, Poland
(which doubled for East Berlin), and was released
on October 16, 2015. Bridge of Spies received
positive reviews from critics, and was nominated
for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture;
Rylance won the Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actor, becoming the second actor to win for
a performance directed by Spielberg.
Spielberg's The BFG is an adaptation of Roald
Dahl's celebrated children's story, starring
newcomer Ruby Barnhill, and Rylance as the
titular Big Friendly Giant. DreamWorks bought
the rights in 2010, originally intending John
Madden to direct. The film was the last to
be written by E.T. screenwriter Melissa Mathison
before she died. It was co-produced and released
by Walt Disney Pictures, marking the first
Disney-branded film to be directed by Spielberg.
The BFG premiered out of competition at the
Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2016 and received
a wide release in the US on July 1, 2016.Spielberg
directed Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep in The
Post, an account of The Washington Post's
printing of the Pentagon Papers. Production
began in New York on May 30, 2017. The film
began a limited release on December 22, 2017,
with a wide release following on January 12,
2018.Spielberg directed the film adaptation
of the popular sci-fi novel Ready Player One,
by Ernest Cline. The film stars Tye Sheridan,
Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Simon Pegg and
Mark Rylance. It began production in London
in July 2016, a year before The Post, which
was filmed, edited and released during the
lengthy, effects-heavy post-production period
for Ready Player One. Ready Player One was
originally slated to be released on December
15, 2017 by Warner Bros., but was pushed back
to March 29, 2018, to avoid competition with
Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It had its world
premiere at the South by Southwest film festival,
on March 11, 2018.Spielberg will next direct
West Side Story a new film adaptation of the
classic musical. Tony Kushner stated in July
2017 that he was adapting the show's book
for Spielberg, though the musical score would
remain unchanged, as would the late-1950s
setting. In January 2018, Spielberg began
an open casting search for the four lead roles,
with Latino actors sought for three of the
roles. On October 2, 2018, it was announced
that Ansel Elgort would play the lead role
of Tony. On January 14, 2019, it was announced
that newcomer Rachel Zegler had been cast
in the other lead role of Maria. The film
will be released by Disney on December 18,
2020.
=== Upcoming projects ===
During an interview with The Tech in 2015,
Spielberg described how he chooses the film
projects he would work on:
[Sometimes], a story speaks to me, even if
it doesn't speak to any of my collaborators
or any of my partners, who look at me and
scratch their heads and say, 'Gee, are you
sure you wanna get into that trench for a
year and a half?' I love people challenging
me that way because it's a real test about
my own convictions and [whether] I can be
the standing man of my own life and take a
stand on a subject that may not be popular,
but that I would be proud to add to the body
of my work. That's pretty much the litmus
test that gets me to say, 'Yeah, I'll direct
that one.'
Spielberg plans to film a fifth installment
in the Indiana Jones series. The untitled
film is set to star Harrison Ford and will
be produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank
Marshall. It is being written by David Koepp,
who has written numerous other films for Spielberg,
including the last Indiana Jones film. It
was originally set for release by Disney on
July 19, 2019. It was then announced that
filming would begin in the UK in April 2019
and the film was given a new release date
of July 10, 2020. Filming was postponed again
in June 2018, when Jonathan Kasdan was announced
as the film's new writer. Soon after, a new
release date of July 9, 2021 was announced.
In May 2019, it was reported that Dan Fogelman
had been hired to write a new script, and
that Kasdan's story, which focused on the
Nazi gold train, would not be used.Spielberg
had planned to film his long-planned adaptation
of David Kertzer's The Kidnapping of Edgardo
Mortara in early 2017 for release at the end
of that year, but production has been postponed.
The book follows the true story of a young
Jewish boy in 1858 Italy who was secretly
baptized by a family servant and then kidnapped
from his family by the Papal States, where
he was raised and trained as a priest, causing
international outrage and becoming a media
sensation. It was first announced in 2014,
with Kushner adapting the book for the screen.
Mark Rylance, in his fourth consecutive collaboration
with Spielberg, was announced to star in the
role of Pope Pius IX. Oscar Isaac was set
to star as Mortara's father, but eventually
dropped out. Spielberg had difficulty casting
the title role, though he saw more than 2000
kids.Spielberg is attached to direct an adaptation
of American photojournalist Lynsey Addario's
memoir It's What I Do. Jennifer Lawrence is
attached to star in the lead role.In April
2018, it was announced that Spielberg would
be directing a film adaptation of the Blackhawk
comic book series. Warner Bros. Pictures is
distributing the film, with David Koepp writing
the script. During an earlier interview in
1981 for Raiders of the Lost Ark, Spielberg
has likened the film to the Blackhawk series.In
January 2013, HBO confirmed that it was developing
a third World War II miniseries based on the
book Masters of the Air by Donald L. Miller
with Spielberg and Tom Hanks to follow Band
of Brothers and The Pacific. Few details have
emerged about the project since, but NME reported
in March 2017 that production was progressing
under the working title The Mighty Eighth.
==== Projects on hold ====
In 2009, Spielberg reportedly tried to obtain
the screen rights to make a film based on
Microsoft's Halo series. In September 2008,
Steven Spielberg bought film rights for John
Wyndham's novel Chocky and is interested in
directing it. He is also interested in making
an adaptation of A Steady Rain, Pirate Latitudes,
The 39 Clues, and a remake of When Worlds
Collide.
In May 2009, Steven Spielberg bought the rights
to the life story of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Spielberg will be involved not only as producer
but also as a director. However, the purchase
was made from the King estate, led by son
Dexter, while the two other surviving children,
the Reverend Bernice and Martin III, immediately
threatened to sue, not having given their
approvals to the project.
=== Production credits ===
Since the mid-1980s, Spielberg has increased
his role as a film producer. He headed up
the production team for several cartoons,
including the Warner Bros. hits Tiny Toon
Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain,
Toonsylvania, and Freakazoid!, for which he
collaborated with Jean MacCurdy and Tom Ruegger.
Due to his work on these series, in the official
titles, most of them say, "Steven Spielberg
presents" as well as making numerous cameos
on the shows. Spielberg also produced the
Don Bluth animated features, An American Tail
and The Land Before Time, which were released
by Universal Studios. He also served as one
of the executive producers of Who Framed Roger
Rabbit and its three related shorts (Tummy
Trouble, Roller Coaster Rabbit, Trail Mix-Up),
which were all released by Disney, under both
the Walt Disney Pictures and the Touchstone
Pictures banners. He was furthermore, for
a short time, the executive producer of the
long-running medical drama ER. In 1989, he
brought the concept of The Dig to LucasArts.
He contributed to the project from that time
until 1995 when the game was released. He
also collaborated with software publishers
Knowledge Adventure on the multimedia game
Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair, which
was released in 1996. Spielberg appears, as
himself, in the game to direct the player.
The Spielberg name provided branding for a
Lego Moviemaker kit, the proceeds of which
went to the Starbright Foundation.
In 1993, Spielberg acted as executive producer
for the highly anticipated television series
seaQuest DSV; a science fiction series set
"in the near future" starring Roy Scheider
(who Spielberg had directed in Jaws) and Jonathan
Brandis that aired on NBC. While the first
season was moderately successful, the second
season did less well. Spielberg's name no
longer appeared in the third season and the
show was cancelled midway through it.
Spielberg served as an uncredited executive
producer on The Haunting, The Prince of Egypt,
Just Like Heaven, Shrek, Road to Perdition,
and Evolution. He served as an executive producer
for the 1997 film Men in Black, and its sequels,
Men in Black II, Men in Black III, and Men
in Black: International. In 2005, he served
as a producer of Memoirs of a Geisha, an adaptation
of the novel by Arthur Golden, a film to which
he was previously attached as director. In
2006, Spielberg co-executive produced with
famed filmmaker Robert Zemeckis a CGI children's
film called Monster House, marking their eighth
collaboration since 1990's Back to the Future
Part III. He also teamed with Clint Eastwood
for the first time in their careers, co-producing
Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters
from Iwo Jima with Robert Lorenz and Eastwood
himself. He earned his twelfth Academy Award
nomination for the latter film as it was nominated
for Best Picture. Spielberg served as executive
producer for Disturbia and the Transformers
live action film with Brian Goldner, an employee
of Hasbro. The film was directed by Michael
Bay and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman,
and Spielberg continued to collaborate on
the sequels, Transformers: Revenge of the
Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers:
Age of Extinction, and Transformers: The Last
Knight. In 2011, he produced the J. J. Abrams
science fiction thriller film Super 8 for
Paramount Pictures.Other major television
series Spielberg produced were Band of Brothers,
Taken and The Pacific. He was an executive
producer on the critically acclaimed 2005
TV miniseries Into the West which won two
Emmy awards, including one for Geoff Zanelli's
score. For his 2010 miniseries The Pacific
he teamed up once again with co-producer Tom
Hanks, with Gary Goetzman also co-producing'.
The miniseries is believed to have cost $250
million and is a 10-part war miniseries centered
on the battles in the Pacific Theater during
World War II. Writer Bruce McKenna, who penned
several installments of (Band of Brothers),
was the head writer.
In 2007, Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett
co-produced On the Lot a short-lived TV reality
show about filmmaking. Despite this, he never
gave up working on television. He currently
serves as one of the executive producers on
United States of Tara, a show created by Academy
Award winner Diablo Cody which they developed
together (Spielberg is uncredited as creator).
In 2011, Spielberg launched Falling Skies,
a science fiction television series, on the
TNT network. He developed the series with
Robert Rodat and is credited as an executive
producer. Spielberg is also producing the
Fox TV series Terra Nova. Terra Nova begins
in the year 2149 when all life on the planet
Earth is threatened with extinction resulting
in scientists opening a door that allows people
to travel back 85 million years to prehistoric
times. Spielberg also produced The River,
Smash, Under the Dome, Extant, The Whispers,
a TV adaptation of Minority Report, and Bull.
However, following sexual misconduct allegations
against Michael Weatherly, Amblin stopped
producing the series, and Spielberg no longer
served as an executive producer.In 2008, Spielberg
and DreamWorks acquired the rights to produce
a live-action film adaptation of the original
Ghost in the Shell manga. Avi Arad and Steven
Paul produced, Rupert Sanders directed, and
Scarlett Johansson stars in the lead role
of the film, which was released in 2017.In
March 2013, Spielberg announced that he was
"developing a Stanley Kubrick screenplay for
a miniseries, not for a motion picture, about
the life of Napoleon." In May 2016, it was
announced that Cary Fukunaga is in talks to
direct the miniseries for HBO, from a script
by David Lenland based on extensive research
materials accumulated by Kubrick over many
years.Spielberg had planned to shoot a $200
million adaptation of Daniel H. Wilson's novel
Robopocalypse, adapted for the screen by Drew
Goddard. The novel follows a global human
war against a robot uprising about 15–20
years in the future. Like Lincoln, it was
to be released by Disney in the United States
and Fox overseas. It was set for release on
April 25, 2014, with Anne Hathaway and Chris
Hemsworth set to star, but Spielberg postponed
production indefinitely in January 2013, just
before it was to begin. In March 2018, it
was announced that the film will now be directed
by Michael Bay.Spielberg will executive produce
Cortes, a historical mini-series written by
Steven Zaillian about the Spanish conquest
of the Aztec empire, and Hernán Cortés's
relationship with Aztec ruler Montezuma. The
script is based on an earlier one from 1965
by Oscar-winner Dalton Trumbo. Javier Bardem
will play the lead role of explorer Hernán
Cortés. Spielberg was previously attached
to direct the project as a feature film.
=== Onscreen appearances ===
Spielberg had cameo roles in The Blues Brothers,
Gremlins, Vanilla Sky, and Austin Powers in
Goldmember, as well as small uncredited cameos
in a handful of other films, such as a life-station
worker in Jaws. He also made numerous cameo
roles in the Warner Bros. cartoons he produced,
such as Animaniacs, and even made reference
to some of his films. Spielberg voiced himself
in the film Paul, and in one episode of Tiny
Toon Adventures titled Buster and Babs Go
Hawaiian.
In 2017, Spielberg, along with fellow directors
Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro,
Paul Greengrass and Lawrence Kasdan were featured
in the Netflix documentary series Five Came
Back, which discussed the contributions of
film directors Frank Capra, John Ford, John
Huston, George Stevens and William Wyler towards
recording the events of World War II. Spielberg
also served as an executive producer on the
series.
=== Involvement in video games ===
Apart from being an ardent gamer Spielberg
has had a long history of involvement in video
games. He has been giving thanks to his games
of his division DreamWorks Interactive as
Someone's in the Kitchen with script written
by Animaniacs' Paul Rugg, Goosebumps: Escape
from HorrorLand, The Neverhood (all in 1996),
Skullmonkeys, Dilbert's Desktop Games, Goosebumps:
Attack of the Mutant (all 1997), Boombots
(1999), T'ai Fu: Wrath of the Tiger (1999),
and Clive Barker's Undying (2001). In 2005
the director signed with Electronic Arts to
collaborate on three games including an action
game and an award-winning puzzle game for
the Wii called Boom Blox (and its 2009 sequel:
Boom Blox Bash Party). Previously, he was
involved in creating the scenario for the
adventure game The Dig. In 1996, Spielberg
worked on and shot original footage for a
movie-making simulation game called Steven
Spielberg's Director's Chair. He is the creator
of the Medal of Honor series by Electronic
Arts. He is credited in the special thanks
section of the 1998 video game Trespasser.
In 2013, Spielberg has announced he is collaborating
with 343 Industries for a live-action TV show
of Halo.
== Themes ==
Spielberg's films often deal with several
recurring themes. Most of his films deal with
ordinary characters searching for or coming
in contact with extraordinary beings or finding
themselves in extraordinary circumstances.
In an AFI interview in August 2000 Spielberg
commented on his interest in the possibility
of extraterrestrial life and how it has influenced
some of his films. Spielberg described himself
as feeling like an alien during childhood,
and his interest came from his father, a science
fiction fan, and his opinion that aliens would
not travel light years for conquest, but instead
curiosity and sharing of knowledge.A strong
consistent theme in his family-friendly work
is a childlike sense of wonder and faith,
as attested by works such as Close Encounters
of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,
Hook, A.I. Artificial Intelligence and The
BFG. According to Warren Buckland, these themes
are portrayed through the use of low height
camera tracking shots, which have become one
of Spielberg's directing trademarks. In the
cases when his films include children (E.T.
the Extra-Terrestrial, Empire of the Sun,
Jurassic Park, etc.), this type of shot is
more apparent, but it is also used in films
like Munich, Saving Private Ryan, The Terminal,
Minority Report, and Amistad. Each of his
films feature this shot utilized by the director,
and the water scenes in Jaws are filmed from
the low-angle perspective of someone swimming.
Another child oriented theme in Spielberg's
films is that of loss of innocence and coming-of-age.
In Empire of the Sun, Jim, a well-groomed
and spoiled English youth, loses his innocence
as he suffers through World War II China.
Similarly, in Catch Me If You Can, Frank naively
and foolishly believes that he can reclaim
his shattered family if he accumulates enough
money to support them.
The most persistent theme throughout his films
is tension in parent-child relationships.
Parents (often fathers) are reluctant, absent
or ignorant. Peter Banning in Hook starts
off in the beginning of the film as a reluctant
married-to-his-work parent who through the
course of the film regains the respect of
his children. The absence of Elliott's father
in E.T. is the most famous example of this
theme. In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,
it is revealed that Indy has always had a
very strained relationship with his father,
who is a professor of medieval literature,
as his father always seemed more interested
in his work, specifically in his studies of
the Holy Grail, than in his own son, although
his father does not seem to realize or understand
the negative effect that his aloof nature
had on Indy (he even believes he was a good
father in the sense that he taught his son
"self reliance," which is not how Indy saw
it). Even Oskar Schindler, from Schindler's
List, is reluctant to have a child with his
wife. In The Color Purple, the main character,
Celie, has been impregnated by her father
multiple times. Munich depicts Avner as a
man away from his wife and newborn daughter.
There are exceptions; Brody in Jaws is a committed
family man, while John Anderton in Minority
Report is a shattered man after the disappearance
of his son. This theme is arguably the most
autobiographical aspect of Spielberg's films,
since Spielberg himself was affected by his
parents' divorce as a child and by the absence
of his father. Furthermore, to this theme,
protagonists in his films often come from
families with divorced parents, including
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (protagonist Elliot's
mother is divorced) and Catch Me If You Can
(Frank Abagnale's mother and father split
early on in the film). Little known also is
Tim in Jurassic Park (early in the film, another
secondary character mentions Tim and Lex's
parents' divorce). The family often shown
divided is often resolved in the ending as
well. Following this theme of reluctant fathers
and father figures, Tim looks to Dr. Alan
Grant as a father figure. Initially, Dr. Grant
is reluctant to return those paternal feelings
to Tim. However, by the end of the film, he
has changed, and the kids even fall asleep
with their heads on his shoulders.
Most of his films are generally optimistic
in nature. Though some critics accuse his
films of being a little overly sentimental,
Spielberg feels it is fine as long as it is
disguised. He is still a highly praised director
as well as being credited as one of the most
influential directors of all time. The influence
comes from directors Frank Capra and John
Ford.
== Personal life ==
=== 
Marriages and children ===
Spielberg first met actress Amy Irving in
1976 at the suggestion of director Brian De
Palma, who knew he was looking for an actress
to play in Close Encounters. After meeting
her, Spielberg told his co-producer Julia
Phillips, "I met a real heartbreaker last
night." Although she was too young for the
role, she and Spielberg began dating and she
eventually moved into what she described as
his "bachelor funky" house. They lived together
for four years, but the stresses of their
professional careers took a toll on their
relationship. Irving wanted to be certain
that whatever success she attained as an actress
would be her own: "I don't want to be known
as Steven's girlfriend," she said, and chose
not to be in any of his films during those
years.As a result, they broke up in 1979,
but remained close friends. Then in 1984 they
renewed their romance, and in November 1985,
they married, already having had a son, Max
Samuel. After three and a half years of marriage,
however, many of the same competing stresses
of their careers caused them to divorce in
1989. They agreed to maintain homes near each
other as to facilitate the shared custody
and parenting of their son. Their divorce
was recorded as the third most costly celebrity
divorce in history.Spielberg subsequently
developed a relationship with actress Kate
Capshaw, whom he met when he cast her in Indiana
Jones and the Temple of Doom. They married
on October 12, 1991. Capshaw is a convert
to Judaism. They currently move among their
four homes in Pacific Palisades, California;
Quelle Farm, Georgica Pond in East Hampton,
New York; New York City; and Naples, Florida.
There are seven children in the Spielberg-Capshaw
family:
Jessica Capshaw (born August 9, 1976) – daughter
from Kate Capshaw's previous marriage to Robert
Capshaw
Max Samuel Spielberg (born June 13, 1985)
– son from Spielberg's previous marriage
to actress Amy Irving
Theo Spielberg (born August 21, 1988) – son
adopted by Capshaw before her marriage to
Spielberg, who later also adopted him
Sasha Rebecca Spielberg (born May 14, 1990,
Los Angeles)
Sawyer Avery Spielberg (born March 10, 1992,
Los Angeles)
Mikaela George (born February 28, 1996) – adopted
with Kate Capshaw
Destry Allyn Spielberg (born December 1, 1996)
=== Religion ===
Spielberg grew up in a Jewish household, including
having a bar mitzvah ceremony in Phoenix when
he turned 13. He grew away from Judaism after
his family moved to various cities during
his high school years, where they became the
only Jews in the neighborhood. Before those
years, his family was involved in the synagogue
and had many Jewish friends and nearby relatives.
He remembers his grandparents telling him
about their life in Russia, where they were
subjected to religious persecution, causing
them to eventually flee to the United States.
He was made aware of the Holocaust by his
parents, who he says "talked about it all
the time, and so it was always on my mind."
His father had lost between sixteen and twenty
relatives during the Holocaust.Spielberg "rediscovered
the honor of being a Jew," he says, before
he made Schindler's List, when he married
Kate Capshaw. Until then, having become a
filmmaker, he only felt his connection to
Judaism when he visited his parents. He says
he made the film partly to create "something
that would confirm my Judaism to my family
and myself."
Kate is Protestant and she insisted on converting
to Judaism. She spent a year studying, did
the "mikveh," the whole thing. She chose to
do a full conversion before we were married
in 1991, and she married me after becoming
a Jew. I think that, more than anything else,
brought me back to Judaism.
He credits her with fueling his family's current
level of observance and for keeping the "momentum
flowing" in their lives, as they now observe
Jewish holidays, light candles on Friday nights,
and give their children Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.
"This shiksa goddess has made me a better
Jew than my own parents."Producing Schindler's
List in 1993 also renewed his faith, Spielberg
says, but "it really was the fact that my
wife took a profound interest in Judaism."
He waited ten years after being given the
story in 1982 to make the film, as he did
not yet feel "mature" enough. He first wanted
to have a family, "to figure out what my place
was in the world... . When my first son, [Max]
was born, it greatly affected me... . A spirit
began to ignite in me, and I became a Jewish
dad..."He said that making the film became
a "natural experience" for him, adding, "I
had to tell the story. I've lived on its outer
edges." The film, writes biographer Joseph
McBride, thereby became the "culmination"
of Spielberg's long personal struggle with
his Jewish identity. Some claim the film has
made Spielberg "the one true heir to the great
Jewish moguls who created Hollywood," most
of whom had actively avoided depicting Jews
or the Holocaust in their films.
=== Wealth ===
Forbes magazine places Spielberg's personal
net worth at $3.7 billion. It was revealed
in 2009 during the Madoff Ponzi scheme investigation
that Spielberg and Capshaw were among the
investors defrauded by Bernie Madoff.(284)
=== Yachting ===
In 2013, Spielberg purchased the 282-foot
(86 m) mega-yacht Seven Seas for US$182 million.
He has since put it up for sale and in the
meantime has made it available for charter.
At US$1.2 million per month, it is one of
the most expensive charters on the market.
He has ordered a new 300-foot (91 m) yacht
costing a reported US$250 million.
=== Recognition ===
In 2002, Spielberg was one of eight flagbearers
who carried the Olympic Flag into Rice-Eccles
Stadium at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2002
Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. In
2006, Premiere listed him as the most powerful
and influential figure in the motion picture
industry. Time listed him as one of the 100
Most Important People of the Century. At the
end of the 20th century, Life named him the
most influential person of his generation.
In 2009, Boston University presented him an
honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.According
to Forbes' Most Influential Celebrities 2014
list, Spielberg was listed as the most influential
celebrity in America. The annual list is conducted
by E-Poll Market Research and it gave more
than 6,600 celebrities on 46 different personality
attributes a score representing "how that
person is perceived as influencing the public,
their peers, or both." Spielberg received
a score of 47, meaning 47% of the US believes
he is influential. Gerry Philpott, president
of E-Poll Market Research, supported Spielberg's
score by stating, "If anyone doubts that Steven
Spielberg has greatly influenced the public,
think about how many will think for a second
before going into the water this summer."
=== Politics ===
Spielberg has usually supported U.S. Democratic
Party candidates. He has donated over $800,000
to the Democratic party and its nominees.
He has been a close friend of former President
Bill Clinton and worked with the President
for the USA Millennium celebrations. He directed
an 18-minute film for the project, scored
by John Williams and entitled The American
Journey. It was shown at America's Millennium
Gala on December 31, 1999, in the National
Mall at the Reflecting Pool at the base of
the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Spielberg resigned as a member of the national
advisory board of the Boy Scouts of America
in 2001 because of his disapproval of the
organization's anti-homosexuality stance.
In 2007 the Arab League voted to boycott Spielberg's
movies after he donated $1 million for relief
efforts in Israel during the 2006 Lebanon
War. On February 20, 2007, Spielberg, Jeffrey
Katzenberg, and David Geffen invited Democrats
to a fundraiser for Barack Obama. In February
2008, Spielberg pulled out of his role as
advisor to the 2008 Summer Olympics in response
to the Chinese government's inaction over
the War in Darfur. Spielberg said in a statement
that "I find that my conscience will not allow
me to continue business as usual." It also
said that "Sudan's government bears the bulk
of the responsibility for these on-going crimes,
but the international community, and particularly
China, should be doing more.." The International
Olympic Committee respected Spielberg's decision,
but IOC president Jacques Rogge admitted in
an interview that "[Spielberg] certainly would
have brought a lot to the opening ceremony
in terms of creativity." Spielberg's statement
drew criticism from Chinese officials and
state-run media calling his criticism "unfair".
In September 2008, Spielberg and his wife
offered their support to same-sex marriage
by issuing a statement following their donation
of $100,000 to the "No on Proposition 8" campaign
fund, a figure equal to the amount of money
Brad Pitt donated to the same campaign less
than a week prior.Spielberg supported Hillary
Clinton for President of the United States
in the 2016 election. He donated US$1 million
to Priorities USA, a pro-Clinton Super PAC.In
2018, Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw
donated $500,000 to the March for Our Lives
student demonstration in favor of gun control
in the United States.
=== Hobbies ===
A collector of film memorabilia, Spielberg
purchased a balsa Rosebud sled from Citizen
Kane (1941) in 1982. He bought Orson Welles's
own directorial copy of the script for the
radio broadcast The War of the Worlds (1938)
in 1994. Spielberg has purchased Academy Award
statuettes being sold on the open market and
donated them to the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences, to prevent their further
commercial exploitation. His donations include
the Oscars that Bette Davis received for Dangerous
(1935) and Jezebel (1938), and Clark Gable's
Oscar for It Happened One Night (1934).Spielberg
is a major collector of the work of American
illustrator and painter Norman Rockwell. A
collection of 57 Rockwell paintings and drawings
owned by Spielberg and fellow Rockwell collector
and film director George Lucas were displayed
at the Smithsonian American Art Museum July
2, 2010 – January 2, 2011, in an exhibition
titled Telling Stories.Spielberg is an avid
film buff and, when not shooting a picture,
he will watch many films in a single weekend.
He sees almost every major summer blockbuster
in theaters if not preoccupied and enjoys
most of them.Since playing Pong while filming
Jaws in 1974, Spielberg has been an avid video
gamer. Spielberg played many of LucasArts
adventure games, including the first Monkey
Island games. He owns a Wii, a PlayStation
3, a PSP, and an Xbox 360, and enjoys playing
first-person shooters such as the Medal of
Honor series and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
He has also criticized the use of cutscenes
in games, calling them intrusive, and feels
making story flow naturally into the gameplay
is a challenge for future game developers.
=== Stalking ===
In 2001, Spielberg was stalked by conspiracy
theorist and former social worker Diana Napolis.
She accused him, along with actress Jennifer
Love Hewitt, of controlling her thoughts through
"cybertronic" technology and being part of
a satanic conspiracy against her. Napolis
was committed to a mental institution before
pleading guilty to stalking, and released
on probation with a condition that she have
no contact with either Spielberg or Hewitt.Jonathan
Norman was arrested after making two attempts
to enter Spielberg's Pacific Palisades home
in June and July 1997. Norman was jailed for
25 years in California. Spielberg told the
court: "Had Jonathan Norman actually confronted
me, I genuinely, in my heart of hearts, believe
that I would have been raped or maimed or
killed."
== 
Filmography ==
== 
Awards and honors ==
Spielberg has won three Academy Awards. He
has been nominated for seven Academy Awards
for the category of Best Director, winning
two of them (Schindler's List and Saving Private
Ryan), and ten of the films he directed were
up for the Best Picture Oscar (Schindler's
List won). In 1987, he was awarded the Irving
G. Thalberg Memorial Award for his work as
a creative producer.
Drawing from his own experiences in Scouting,
Spielberg helped the Boy Scouts of America
develop a merit badge in cinematography in
order to help promote filmmaking as a marketable
skill. The badge was launched at the 1989
National Scout Jamboree, which Spielberg attended,
and where he personally counseled many boys
in their work on requirements.
That same year, 1989, saw the release of Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade. The opening scene
shows a teenage Indiana Jones in scout uniform
bearing the rank of a Life Scout. Spielberg
stated he made Indiana Jones a Boy Scout in
honor of his experience in Scouting. For his
career accomplishments, service to others,
and dedication to a new merit badge Spielberg
was awarded the Distinguished Eagle Scout
Award.Steven Spielberg received the AFI Life
Achievement Award in 1995.
In 1998, he was awarded the Federal Cross
of Merit with Ribbon of the Federal Republic
of Germany. The Award was presented to him
by President Roman Herzog in recognition of
his film Schindler's List and his Shoa-Foundation.In
1999, Spielberg received an honorary degree
from Brown University. Spielberg was also
awarded the Department of Defense Medal for
Distinguished Public Service by Secretary
of Defense William Cohen at the Pentagon on
August 11, 1999; Cohen presented the award
in recognition of Spielberg's film Saving
Private Ryan.
In 2001, he was appointed as an honorary Knight
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for services to
the entertainment industry of the United Kingdom.In
2004, he was admitted as knight of the Légion
d'honneur by president Jacques Chirac. On
July 15, 2006, Spielberg was also awarded
the Gold Hugo Lifetime Achievement Award at
the Summer Gala of the Chicago International
Film Festival, and also was awarded a Kennedy
Center honour on December 3. The tribute to
Spielberg featured a short, filmed biography
narrated by Liam Neeson and included thank-yous
from World War II veterans for Saving Private
Ryan, as well as a performance of the finale
to Leonard Bernstein's Candide, conducted
by John Williams (Spielberg's frequent composer).The
Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted Spielberg
in 2005, the first year it considered non-literary
contributors. In November 2007, he was chosen
for a Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented
at the sixth annual Visual Effects Society
Awards in February 2009. He was set to be
honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at
the January 2008 Golden Globes; however, due
to the new, watered-down format of the ceremony
resulting from conflicts in the 2007–08
writers strike, the HFPA postponed his honor
to the 2009 ceremony. In 2008, Spielberg was
awarded the Légion d'honneur.In June 2008,
Spielberg received Arizona State University's
Hugh Downs Award for Communication Excellence.Spielberg
received an honorary degree at Boston University's
136th Annual Commencement on May 17, 2009.
In October 2009 Steven Spielberg received
the Philadelphia Liberty Medal; presenting
him with the medal was former US president
and Liberty Medal recipient Bill Clinton.
Special guests included Whoopi Goldberg, Pennsylvania
Governor Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor
Michael Nutter.
On October 22, 2011 he was admitted as a Commander
of the Belgian Order of the Crown. He was
given the badge on a red neck ribbon by the
Belgian Federal Minister of Finance Didier
Reynders. The Commander is the third highest
rank of the Order of the Crown. He was the
president of the jury for the 2013 Cannes
Film Festival.On November 19, 2013, Spielberg
was honored by the National Archives and Records
Administration with its Records of Achievement
Award. Spielberg was given two facsimiles
of the 13th Amendment to the United States
Constitution, one passed but not ratified
in 1861, as well as a facsimile of the actual
1865 amendment signed into law by President
Abraham Lincoln. The amendment and the process
of passing it were the subject of his film
Lincoln.In November 24, 2015, Spielberg was
awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom
from President Barack Obama in a ceremony
at the White House.On May 26, 2016, Spielberg
was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Arts by
Harvard University.
In July 2016, Spielberg was awarded a gold
Blue Peter badge on the BBC children's television
programme Blue Peter.
=== Awards received by Spielberg films ===
=== 
Directed Academy Award Performances ===
Spielberg has directed multiple Oscar winning
and nominated performances.
== Praise and criticism ==
In 2005, Steven Spielberg was rated the greatest
film director of all time by Empire magazine.
In 1997, a Wall Street sell-side analyst said,
"There are only two brand names in the business:
Disney and Spielberg".
After watching the unconventional, off-center
camera techniques of Jaws, Alfred Hitchcock
praised "young Spielberg," for thinking outside
of the visual dynamics of the theater, saying
"He's the first one of us who doesn't see
the proscenium arch".
Some of Spielberg's admirers include Robert
Aldrich, Ingmar Bergman, Werner Herzog, Stanley
Kubrick, David Lean, Sidney Lumet, Roman Polanski,
Martin Scorsese, François Truffaut, David
Lynch and Zhang Yimou.
Spielberg's movies have also influenced many
directors that followed, including Adam Green,
J. J. Abrams, Paul Thomas Anderson, Neill
Blomkamp, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro,
Roland Emmerich, David Fincher, Peter Jackson,
Kal Ng, Robert Rodriguez, John Sayles, Ridley
Scott, John Singleton, Kevin Smith, Steven
Soderbergh, Quentin Tarantino, and Gareth
Edwards. In 2016, Jeffrey Katzenberg said
of Spielberg: "You can take James Cameron,
Chris Nolan or Martin Scorsese – all brilliant
and in many ways his peers, but look at quality
and consistency, and no one compares."
British film critic Tom Shone has said of
Spielberg, "If you have to point to any one
director of the last twenty-five years in
whose work the medium of film was most fully
itself – where we found out what it does
best when left to its own devices, it has
to be that guy." Jess Cagle, the managing
editor of Entertainment Weekly, called Spielberg
"...arguably (well, who would argue?) the
greatest filmmaker in history."
Spielberg's critics complain that his films
are overly sentimental and tritely moralistic.
In his book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How
the Sex 'n' Drugs 'n' Rock 'n' Roll Generation
Saved Hollywood, Peter Biskind summarized
the views of Spielberg's detractors, accusing
the director of "infantilizing the audience,
reconstituting the spectator as child, then
overwhelming him and her with sound and spectacle,
obliterating irony, aesthetic self-consciousness,
and critical reflection."
Critics of mainstream film such as Ray Carney
and American artist and actor Crispin Glover
(who starred in the Spielberg-produced Back
to the Future and who sued Spielberg for using
his likeness in Back to the Future Part II)
claim that Spielberg's films lack depth and
do not take risks.
French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard
stated that he holds Spielberg partly responsible
for the lack of artistic merit in mainstream
cinema and accused Spielberg of using his
film Schindler's List to make a profit off
tragedy while Schindler's wife, Emilie Schindler,
lived in poverty in Argentina. In defense
of Spielberg, critic Roger Ebert said "Has
Godard or any other director living or dead
done more than Spielberg, with his Holocaust
Project, to honor and preserve the memories
of the survivors?" Author Thomas Keneally
has also disputed claims that Emilie Schindler
was never paid for her contributions to the
film, "not least because I had recently sent
Emilie a check myself."
Film critic Pauline Kael, who had championed
Spielberg's films in the 1970s, expressed
disappointment in his later development, stating
that "he's become, I think, a very bad director....
And I'm a little ashamed for him, because
I loved his early work.... [H]e turned to
virtuous movies. And he's become so uninteresting
now.... I think that he had it in him to become
more of a fluid, far-out director. But, instead,
he's become a melodramatist."
Imre Kertész, Hungarian Jewish author, Nazi
concentration camp survivor, and winner of
the Nobel Prize in Literature, criticized
Spielberg's depiction of the Holocaust in
Schindler's List as kitsch, saying "I regard
as kitsch any representation of the Holocaust
that is incapable of understanding or unwilling
to understand the organic connection between
our own deformed mode of life and the very
possibility of the Holocaust." Veteran documentary
filmmaker and professor Claude Lanzmann also
labeled Schindler's List "pernicious in its
impact and influence" and "very sentimental".
Stephen Rowley wrote an extensive essay about
Spielberg and his career in Senses of Cinema.
In it, he discussed Spielberg's strengths
as a filmmaker, saying "there is a welcome
complexity of tone and approach in these later
films that defies the lazy stereotypes often
bandied about his films" and that "Spielberg
continues to take risks, with his body of
work continuing to grow more impressive and
ambitious", concluding that he has only received
"limited, begrudging recognition" from critics.
Shia LaBeouf, who worked with Spielberg on
a number of films including Indiana Jones
and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and various
DreamWorks productions (such as the Transformers
film series), described his experiences working
with the director in a wide-ranging interview
with Variety in 2016. He stated, "I grew up
with this idea, [that] if you got to Spielberg,
that's where it is – I'm not talking about
fame, and I'm not talking about money. You
get there, and you realize you're not meeting
the Spielberg you dream of. You're meeting
a different Spielberg, who is in a different
stage in his career. He's less a director
than he is a fucking company." He went on
to discuss his on-set actor/director relationship
with Spielberg, as well as the films they
made together, "Spielberg's sets are very
different – everything has been so meticulously
planned. You got to get this line out in 37
seconds. You do that for five years, you start
to feel like not knowing what you're doing
for a living." He concluded his point by stating:
"I don't like the movies that I made with
Spielberg. The only movie that I liked that
we made together was [the first] Transformers
[film]." Later in the interview, LaBeouf recited
and criticised the advice given to him by
Spielberg following the mixed reaction to
both Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and LaBeouf's
performance in the film. He claims Spielberg
told him not to read about himself in the
media, but LaBeouf felt irritated by what
he perceived to be non-advice and a lack of
understanding, saying "There's no way to not
do that. For me to not read that means I need
to not take part in society. The generation
previous to mine didn't have the immediate
response [of the internet]. If you were Mark
Hamill [in Star Wars], you could lie to yourself.
You could find the pockets of joy, and turn
a blind eye to the shit over there."
=== Other ===
In 1999, Spielberg, then a co-owner of DreamWorks,
was involved in a heated debate in which the
studio proposed building on wetlands near
Los Angeles, though development was later
dropped for economic reasons.
In August 2007, Ai Weiwei, artistic consultant
for the Beijing Olympic Stadium, known as
the "Bird's Nest", accused those choreographing
the Olympic opening ceremony, including Spielberg,
of failing to live up to their responsibility
as artists by allowing their work to be used
by the Chinese government, which has suppressed
human rights in China, including those of
Ai's family, for the purpose of "propaganda".
Ai said, "It's disgusting. I don't like anyone
who shamelessly abuses their profession, who
makes no moral judgment."
On February 28, 2019, Anne Thompson of IndieWire
reported that Spielberg is keen on pushing
for rule changes at the Academy Awards (Oscars)
regarding films that are distributed theatrically
and through streaming, with Thompson sharing
an Amblin spokesperson's quote: "Steven feels
strongly about the difference between the
streaming and theatrical situation. He'll
be happy if the others will join [his campaign]
when that comes up [at the Academy Board of
Governors meeting]. He will see what happens."
This, in addition to his March 2018 criticism
of Netflix's distribution strategy, was then
interpreted by others to be Spielberg campaigning
against Netflix films being qualified for
the Oscars, prompting reactions from Ava DuVernay,
J. C. Chandor, and Joe Berlinger among others.
Jeffrey Katzenberg stated that Spielberg has
"actually said nothing" regarding the situation
with Netflix, adding that "What happened is
a journalist was onto a story about this and
had heard a rumor about Steven. They called
a spokesperson to get a comment and honestly,
just twisted it around. One, Steven didn't
say that, and two, he is not going to the
academy in April with some sort of plan. But
he has not opined at all, nor has he aligned
with some specific thing."
== 
See also ==
Directors with two films rated A+ by CinemaScore
