Steven Spielberg

[princess 1,712]

EOnline.com

 

HE GOT GAME: Steven Spielberg partnering with Electronic Arts to create three original videogame franchises, the trades report. No financial figures were disclosed.

 

Hum, didn't see him going in this direction...

[Rebelgirl 1]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Spielberg Production Sued Over HaircutFri Mar 17, 7:26 PM ETA Mescalero Apache family in southern New Mexico has sued the producers of Steven Spielberg's television miniseries, "Into the West," claiming a set stylist cut an 8-year-old girl's hair without regard for tribal customs. "It's part of our culture not to cut a girl's hair until her Coming of Age ceremony," the girl's father, Danny Ponce, said Friday in a telephone interview. "The only ones allowed to do that are the parents. Nobody asked for permission." Ponce filed suit in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on March 6, naming Turner Films Inc. and the unknown stylist as defendants. The lawsuit seeks $250,000 for emotional distress and $75,000 in damages. A Turner Films spokeswoman said the company doesn't comment on pending litigation. The lawsuit says Ponce's daughter, Christina, responded through her parents last March to an open casting call for work on the TNT network miniseries, "Into the West," for a three-day shoot near Carrizozo, N.M. The stylist cut the girl's hair, the lawsuit claims, "to make her look more 'Indian' and like a male Indian child because the movie casting call failed to produce sufficient young male extras of Indian heritage." The Mescalero tradition forbids cutting a girl's hair as she approaches puberty. To prepare for womanhood, Mescalero girls participate in a sacred Coming of Age ceremony that requires their hair to reach the waist. Before it was cut, Ponce said his daughter's hair fell midway down her back. It has since grown to her collar. "This has to do with the culture of a tribal member," he said. "It was cut very short above her ears. She looked like a boy." Gov. Bill Richardson in recent years has increased state efforts to attract the film industry to New Mexico. While Ponce welcomes those initiatives, he suggested filmmakers from outside the state should try to be more culturally sensitive. "Just because you're wealthy, you don't do something without checking first," Ponce said.

[BobbyD 2]

Spielberg Joining Olympics Ceremony TeamSteven Spielberg will join filmmaker Zhang Yimou in designing the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Zhang, whose films include "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers," was named Sunday to lead a team that includes Spielberg. "I've promised not to direct any films in the next two years so as to make full preparations for the Olympics," Zhang was quoted as saying in the official Xinhua News Agency. Zhang said his hiatus will start after he finishes his latest project, "The City of Golden Armor," starring Chow Yun-fat and Gong Li. He is to stage the world premiere of countryman Tan Dun's opera "The First Emperor" for New York's Metropolitan Opera later this year. It wasn't clear how that commitment would be affected by his new Olympics role. Spielberg's films include "Schindler's List," "Saving Private Ryan" and "Munich."

[Cutielb99 0]

Spielberg tops stars' income list

BBC

 

Film director Steven Spielberg was the world's highest-earning celebrity last year, according to Forbes magazine.

 

The man behind ET and Jurassic Park had an estimated income of £180 million in 2005, or £342 per minute.

 

DJ Howard Stern is in second place on the list at £163 million, with Star Wars director George Lucas third on £127 million, the magazine calculates.

 

JK Rowling was the highest-ranked non-American, with Harry Potter earning her £41 million, or £78 per minute.

 

The author was responsible for the biggest-selling book in the US in 2005.

 

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was published in July, sold 7.2 million copies there.

 

And the entire series has resulted in sales of about 300 million around the world.

 

HIGHEST-EARNING CELEBRITIES

 

1. Steven Spielberg - £180m

2. Howard Stern - £163m

3. George Lucas - £127m

4. Oprah Winfrey - £122m

5. Jerry Seinfeld - £54m

6. Tiger Woods - £49m

7. Dan Brown - £48m

8. Jerry Bruckheimer - £45m

9. JK Rowling - £41m

10. Dick Wolf - £38m

Source: Forbes magazine

 

Jerry Seinfeld was in fifth place, even though his TV show - which was famously "about nothing" - ended in 1998.

 

The release of each series on DVD, which began at the end of 2004, will have been a factor in his income for last year.

 

Golfer Tiger Woods was the top sporting figure, with an estimated income of £49 million.

 

Last year he won two major tournaments - the Open and the Masters.

 

Dan Brown, author of controversial religious novel The Da Vinci Code, generated £48 million.

 

Executive producer of the three CSI television programmes and producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Jerry Bruckheimer, was in eighth place.

 

And another figure associated with the creation of a hit TV franchise - Dick Wolf, who was behind crime series Law and Order - comes tenth on £38 million.

[BobbyD 2]

Snark Attack!How dare Steven Spielberg trash the shark that made him famous? At a fund-raiser the other night for Bridgehampton's Hayground School, the "Jaws" director told the 400-plus crowd: "The movie is more of a character study than a horror movie. I think people realize the shark looks like a big white turd, but the characters make it believable." As for said "turd," it used to be on the Universal Studios tour, "but it got eaten by termites so it was scrapped." How's that for ingratitude?

[BobbyD 2]

Edward Norton can forget about a part in a Steven Spielberg movie. The "Illusionist" star can't fathom why Spielberg focused on the "completely anomalous" 1839 slave ship mutiny in "Amistad" when "no significant film has been made about the slave trade." Spielberg "failed terribly," Norton tells The Sunday Times of London. "I remember Spike Lee saying that if he had done to 'Schindler's List' what Spielberg did to the 'Amistad incident,' someone would have hung him from a light pole, and I agree."…

[BobbyD 2]

Eastwood, Spielberg Premiere 'Flags'

AP

 

An army of young Hollywood stars jammed the red carpet at the "Flags of Our Fathers" premiere, but two veterans got the most attention: director Clint Eastwood and producer Steven Spielberg.

 

"I made (the movie) because he asked me to," Eastwood said, referring to Spielberg. "Because he's hard to turn down."

 

Based on the 2000 best-selling book by James Bradley and Ron Powers, the film recounts the story of Bradley's father, John, one of the six Americans who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. Joe Rosenthal's Associated Press photograph of the event became what is widely considered the most enduring image of World War II.

 

"I had originally bought the book because I felt that that photograph ... was one of the most iconic images in all of American history next to some of the Lincoln portraits," Spielberg told AP Television at the Monday night screening.

 

"That photograph really launched a really amazing (wartime propaganda) campaign that dislocated three survivors of the Iwo Jima flag raising and put them on a public-relations tour that, in many ways, was harder than fighting alongside their buddies on the island of Iwo Jima," Spielberg said.

 

As portrayed in the film, the three were forced to lie about the identity of one of the men in the photo to help the war cause and sell war bonds. Nor were the men comfortable being called "heroes."

 

"People will be surprised that this film is not about flag raising or flag waving," noted actor Barry Pepper. "It's about a wonderful chapter in America's history and how the country unified and rallied to support a cause that was necessary."

 

Not surprisingly, there is Academy Awards talk about the film from Dreamworks SKG, which is part of Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner.

 

Some are singling out Adam Beach, a Native American, and his portrayal of the most distraught of the surviving soldiers.

 

"It's unimaginable," Beach replied, when told of the Oscar chatter. "I never thought of myself to be talked about in that way. All I know is that every step I take, there's Native American people behind me taking the same step. So anything up ahead for me that puts me in a better position my success is their success, so it's a privilege and an honor."

 

While "Flags" is a tribute to men of yesteryear, their stories also have modern-day significance.

 

"The movie is about how you sell a war to the public and I think we are dealing with that right now in the current military campaign that we're involved in," said actor Jesse Bradford. "I think we're dealing right now with the war that a lot of people would agree was sold to us under false pretense. And so I think that's one of the main things I'd like to see this movie spark a debate about."

[Cutielb99 0]

NO SEATS FOR SPIELBERG 'NIECE'

Page Six

 

October 17, 2006 -- STEVEN Spielberg, phone home - a woman who claims to be your niece has been shamelessly dropping your name in a bid to get red-carpet treatment at Los Angeles Fashion Week.

 

Ken Henman of Aline Media forwarded Page Six a series of whiny e-mails from one Emily Spielberg, who repeatedly wrote his company, touting her alleged link to the director of "Jaws," "Schindler's List" and "War of the Worlds" in a bid to get front-row seats to the runway show for Life & Death, a new line from the designers of Antik Denim.

 

"Its emily spielberg steven spielbergs niece . . . Sorry I'm emailing you so late please put me on the list . . . please try for front row. This is a late e-mail cause I'm in the process of switching publicists. Thanks me plus one," the seat-seeker wrote.

 

Informed by Henman the show was full, Emily then asked for standing room for herself and her mother, "and we can find a seat." When Henman responded that the only exceptions were "A-list celebrities and media," Emily fired back: "I think spielberg is a list, don't u?"

 

The publicist finally told the alleged Spielberg relative, "You are not Steven and you are not accepted. Have a nice day!" But she remained undeterred. "I'm attending every other show I want. The reason for the late notice is because I was in paris for their fashion week . . . I see a problem with front row, but you can't even get me plus one into the show?"

 

"Does she ever give up?" Henman mused.

 

Emily Spielberg, who told Page Six she's actually the filmmaker's "second or third cousin - we're not even sure," said she saw no problem with dropping Steven Spielberg's name: "Whatever works. Wouldn't you do that, too?" She insisted that the director's office was aware of her and didn't mind her using his name.

 

But Spielberg's rep, Marvin Levy, says that's news to him: "It's not a name that's familiar. People do this. They'll toss out a name on the chance that no one will check. Could it be someone who is three or four or five times removed, someone that hasn't been heard from in 30 years? It's possible."

[BobbyD 2]

Spielberg Brings Two Dramas to FOX

Ed Burns and Christy Turlington will write a pilot set in the fashion industry

 

Big screen titan Steven Spielberg is suddenly all over the television marketplace as well.

 

Already executive producing FOX's spring reality series "On the Lot," Spielberg has now brought two scripted shows to the network. DreamWorks TV and 20th Century Fox TV will produce both one-hour dramas.

 

The first drama comes from Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" star Ed Burns and Burns' wife Christy Turlington. According to the Hollywood trade papers, the project is set in the world of fashion and will follow five friends trying to make it behind-the-scenes in the industry. Burns is expected to direct the pilot if it goes forward.

 

R. Scott Gemmill ("E.R.") is writing the other pilot, which focuses on two World War II-era physicists who find a way to travel forward in time to 2007. Their mission is to bring back technology and help the war effort, but one of the researchers falls in love with a 2007 woman which is just bound to cause problems.

 

TNT just announced last week that Spielberg and DreamWorks TV will produce an adaptation of Stephen King and Peter Straub's "The Talisman."

 

On the big screen side, Spielberg's last directing effort was the Oscar nominated "Munich." He most recently produced Clint Eastwood's "Flags of our Fathers"/"Letters From Iwo Jima" double-bill.

[BobbyD 2]

Spielberg, Cruz and King Party With the Cruises

 

 

Steven Spielberg, Penelope Cruz, Larry King and Jennifer Lopez were amongst a host of stars who gathered to celebrate the marriage of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on Saturday night. Cruise's producing partner Paula Wagner and her husband Rick Nicita hosted a post-wedding bash for the newlyweds in their Beverly Hills, California mansion - three weeks after the Mission: Impossible actor wed Holmes in Bracciano, Italy. The party gave the couple a chance to party with friends who couldn't make the romantic castle ceremony in Italy. Lopez and her husband Marc Anthony, who also attended the Bracciano wedding, arrived at Saturday's party in a Rolls Royce, while Cruise's ex Cruz - who split from the actor in January 2004 - arrived alone. Stars at the bash included Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw, directors Oliver Stone and Ed Zwick, Orlando Bloom, James Van Der Beek, Derek Luke, Catherine Bell, Diane Sawyer, Brian Grazer and former Paramount studio boss Sherry Lansing. Oprah Winfrey was a notable absentee at the party - her spokesperson confirmed last week the TV titan had not been invited.

[mf'smom 0]

Spielberg, Cruz and King Party With the Cruises

 

 

Steven Spielberg, Penelope Cruz, Larry King and Jennifer Lopez were amongst a host of stars who gathered to celebrate the marriage of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on Saturday night. Cruise's producing partner Paula Wagner and her husband Rick Nicita hosted a post-wedding bash for the newlyweds in their Beverly Hills, California mansion - three weeks after the Mission: Impossible actor wed Holmes in Bracciano, Italy. The party gave the couple a chance to party with friends who couldn't make the romantic castle ceremony in Italy. Lopez and her husband Marc Anthony, who also attended the Bracciano wedding, arrived at Saturday's party in a Rolls Royce, while Cruise's ex Cruz - who split from the actor in January 2004 - arrived alone. Stars at the bash included Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw, directors Oliver Stone and Ed Zwick, Orlando Bloom, James Van Der Beek, Derek Luke, Catherine Bell, Diane Sawyer, Brian Grazer and former Paramount studio boss Sherry Lansing. Oprah Winfrey was a notable absentee at the party - her spokesperson confirmed last week the TV titan had not been invited.

Speilberg YOU ARE A TRAITOR. Just for the free booze? Don't you have some at home? Don't you remember waht he did to your kid (you know that SCIENTOLOGY crap)? Did you have a brain fart? REALLY PATHETIC. These rest of these people, well, so what. Marc Anthony is a corpse, his wife is on a lonely road to nowhere, P. Cruz is a fag hag extraordinaire, and some of these people...maybe on Saved by the Bell reruns or something?

Edited December 12, 2006 by mf'smom

[kappy22 1]

 

Spielberg, Cruz and King Party With the Cruises

 

 

Steven Spielberg, Penelope Cruz, Larry King and Jennifer Lopez were amongst a host of stars who gathered to celebrate the marriage of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes on Saturday night. Cruise's producing partner Paula Wagner and her husband Rick Nicita hosted a post-wedding bash for the newlyweds in their Beverly Hills, California mansion - three weeks after the Mission: Impossible actor wed Holmes in Bracciano, Italy. The party gave the couple a chance to party with friends who couldn't make the romantic castle ceremony in Italy. Lopez and her husband Marc Anthony, who also attended the Bracciano wedding, arrived at Saturday's party in a Rolls Royce, while Cruise's ex Cruz - who split from the actor in January 2004 - arrived alone. Stars at the bash included Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw, directors Oliver Stone and Ed Zwick, Orlando Bloom, James Van Der Beek, Derek Luke, Catherine Bell, Diane Sawyer, Brian Grazer and former Paramount studio boss Sherry Lansing. Oprah Winfrey was a notable absentee at the party - her spokesperson confirmed last week the TV titan had not been invited.

Speilberg YOU ARE A TRAITOR. Just for the free booze? Don't you have some at home? Don't you remember waht he did to your kid (you know that SCIENTOLOGY crap)? Did you have a brain fart? REALLY PATHETIC. These rest of these people, well, so what. Marc Anthony is a corpse, his wife is on a lonely road to nowhere, P. Cruz is a fag hag extraordinaire, and some of these people...maybe on Saved by the Bell reruns or something?

 

Re Speilberg ~ I think Cruise is blackmailing him.

[Cutielb99 0]

WHY HITCH SHUNNED SPIELBERG

Page Six

 

January 28, 2007 -- ONE of the biggest disappointments in director Steven Spielberg's life was Alfred Hitchcock's repeated refusal to meet him - but it turns out the Master of Suspense had a bizarre excuse. In his memoir, "Things I've Said, But Probably Shouldn't Have," due in May from Wiley, actor Bruce Dern writes that he tried and tried to convince the director of "Psycho" and "The Birds" to say hello to Spielberg, who had just triumphed with "Jaws." "I said, 'You're his idol. He just to sit at your feet for five minutes and chat with you' . . . He said, 'Isn't that the boy who made the fish movie? . . . I could never sit down and talk to him . . . because I look at him and feel like such a whore,' " Dern relates. Completely puzzled, Dern, who appeared in two Hitchcock flicks, finally pinned the director down: "I said, 'Why do you feel Spielberg makes you a whore?' Hitch said, 'Because I'm the voice of the 'Jaws' ride [at Universal Studios]. They paid me a mil lion dollars. And I took it and I did it. I'm such a whore. I can't sit down and talk to the boy who did the fish movie . . . I couldn't even touch his hand."

[plick 1]

From imdb.com today...

 

Farrow: "Spielberg Could Become Leni Riefenstahl of Olympic Games"

 

Actress Mia Farrow has condemned director Steven Spielberg for aiding China's staging of the 2008 Olympic Games, warning he could become known as "the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games." Farrow, a United Nations UNICEF goodwill ambassador, launched an impassioned appeal on behalf of African victims in the over-spilling Sudan crisis earlier this month. And The Omen star, 62, is astonished so many big names and corporations like Coca-Cola and McDonald's are also readily lending their support to what they have dubbed 'The Genocide Olympics', because China openly supports the government of Sudan. She writes in a Wall Street Journal article, "That so many corporate sponsors want the world to look away from that atrocity during the games is bad enough. But equally disappointing is the decision of artists like director Steven Spielberg - who quietly visited China this month as he prepares to help stage the Olympic ceremonies - to sanitize Beijing's image. Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994 founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling Darfur's genocide?" Farrow went on to warn the Schindler's List director that he risked becoming a modern version of Nazi propaganda filmmaker Riefenstahl, who is famed for her 1936 Berlin games film Olympia. She writes, "Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games? Do the various television sponsors around the world want to share in that shame? Because they will. Unless, of course, all of them add their singularly well-positioned voices to the growing calls for Chinese action to end the slaughter in Darfur." According to official United Nations figures, more than 200,000 people have died and more than two million have been displaced since the rebels and government forces first clashed in Dafur in 2003.

[QTPIE 0]

oop, guess not enough coffee this morning. I deleted

[k80cat 0]

Snark Attack!

 

How dare Steven Spielberg trash the shark that made him famous? At a fund-raiser the other night for Bridgehampton's Hayground School, the "Jaws" director told the 400-plus crowd: "The movie is more of a character study than a horror movie. I think people realize the shark looks like a big white turd, but the characters make it believable." As for said "turd," it used to be on the Universal Studios tour, "but it got eaten by termites so it was scrapped." How's that for ingratitude?

Oh, really. Everyone will make something out of nothing these days. (I know I'm replying to an old post but I couldn't resist.)

 

I've seen Spielberg talk about this movie and the shark on tv, and what a pain it the ass it all was, and it's pretty funny. Remember, Jaws was filmed before Steve and his friend George Lucas started the revolution in special effects. In fact, this film's shark(s) may partly be why they started a revolution.

 

From wikipedia:

Three mechanical sharks were made for the production: a full model for underwater shots, one that turned from left to right, with the left side completely exposed to the internal machinery, and a similar right to left model, with the right side exposed. Their construction was supervised by production designer Joe Alves and special effects artist Bob Mattey. After the sharks were completed, they were shipped to the shooting location, but unfortunately had not been tested in water and when placed in the ocean the full model sank to the ocean floor. A team of divers retrieved it.

 

Location shooting occurred on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, chosen because the ocean had a sandy bottom while 12 miles (19 km) out at sea. This helped the mechanical sharks to operate smoothly and still provide a realistic location..... The mechanical shark frequently malfunctioned, due to the hydraulic innards being corroded by salt water. The three mechanical sharks were collectively nicknamed "Bruce" by the production team after Spielberg's lawyer, and Spielberg called one of the sharks "the Great White turd". Disgruntled crew members gave the film the nickname "Flaws".

 

...the unreliable mechanical sharks forced Spielberg to shoot most of the scenes with the shark only hinted at. For example, for much of the shark hunt its location is represented by the floating yellow barrels. This forced restraint is widely thought to have increased the suspense of these scenes, giving it a Hitchcockian tone.

Edited November 20, 2007 by k80cat

[tyler 408]

oop, guess not enough coffee this morning. I deleted

 

Is that the same as "you made me ink?"

 

 

 

Think Nemo.

[MC 1]

From Radar Online

 

 

SPIELBERG OUT AT DREAMWORKS?

 

Steven Spielberg is leaving the studio he helped found 13 years ago, say sources deep inside Viacom.

"He's gone, and he's not going to be missed," one knowledgeable insider tells Radar. Word is, Viacom chief Sumner Redstone—who made headlines in 2006 for canning Tom Cruise after his off-screen antics became a liability—has struck again.

 

So, is the ornery octogenarian billionaire, who also controls CBS, Paramount Pictures, and MTV Networks, trying to prove that he's still the big swinging dick of the entertainment business? Looks that way.

 

Spielberg and fellow moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg sold their studio to Paramount in 2005, but the trio have reportedly grown increasingly unhappy about their arrangement in the years since. This fall, Geffen launched a pissing match in the press, lashing out at his corporate overlords in a Vanity Fair interview. From there, things quickly got nasty. Viacom announced it would not renew DreamWorks' contract when it expires next November. Geffen shopped the studio "all over town," and last month the partners entered into talks with NBC Universal.

 

If Geffen was so mouthy, why would Spielberg be the one to get the axe? Spielberg, remember, was right behind Cruise in pocketing profits from War of the Worlds, while the studio sucked wind. And in September, Viacom CEO Phillippe Dauman said that losing Spielberg would "completely immaterial" to Paramount's bottom line. But as recently as December 3, he'd seemed to change his tune, hailing the director as "one of the great filmmakers of our time and all time." So which is it? Stay tuned. We have a feeling the shit storm's just beginning.

 

By Amy Monaghan 12/11/07 9:00 AM

File Under: Scandal, Steven Spielberg, Sumner Redstone, Viacom

[BobbyD 2]

Spokesman: Spielberg not leaving D'Works

Reuters

 

Dec 13, 2007

 

Steven Spielberg is not leaving DreamWorks, his spokesman said Tuesday, denying a report on the online edition of celebrity magazine Radar.

 

"Radar's radar kind of bounced off an incorrect source," the spokesman said.

 

Spielberg's relationship with DreamWorks' parent, Paramount, a unit of Viacom Inc, has been the subject of intense speculation in recent months.

 

Radar reported Tuesday that Spielberg was unhappy and leaving the studio he helped found 13 years ago, citing sources deep inside Viacom.

 

DreamWorks was acquired by Paramount Pictures in 2005 for $1.6 billion. Under the deal, Spielberg and partner David Geffen agreed to stay on with Viacom through the end of 2008. But there has been persistent speculation the two principals are unhappy and may choose to leave Paramount at the end of 2008.

 

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, a separate publicly held studio run by Jeffrey Katzenberg, has its own deal to have its movies distributed by Paramount through 2012.

 

Last week, NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker said at a UBS investor conference the company would consider buying DreamWorks from Viacom if the movie studio was ever put up for sale. NBC is majority owned by General Electric Co.

 

The New York Times reported last month that Geffen and Spielberg have been negotiating to move their studio to NBC Universal from Viacom's Paramount Pictures.

 

In September, Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman caused a stir when he told investors at Goldman Sachs' Communacopia media conference in New York that, if Spielberg chose to leave, the impact would be "immaterial" to the company.

 

But speaking at the same UBS conference as NBC Universal's Zucker last week, Dauman said his company "will continue to have a very long relationship with Steven in one form or another."

 

"Our plan is to proceed with mutual respect," Dauman said. "We're going to proceed with calm, deliberateness and to make sure he's happy doing what he's doing."

[BobbyD 2]

Baron Cohen up for 'Seven'

British actor would play Abbie Hoffman in film

By LEO BARRACLOUGH, MICHAEL FLEMING

 

Could "The Trial of the Chicago Seven" be Steven Spielberg's next picture?

Spielberg has been developing the DreamWorks project, about anti-Vietnam War activists arrested at the 1968 Democratic Convention, for some time. Now it looks as if he has found his hippie ringleader.

 

British thesp Sacha Baron Cohen, who just came off a role in DreamWorks' "Sweeney Todd," has been attached to play Abbie Hoffman in the pic, according to a report in London's Sunday Times.

 

A rep for Spielberg would neither confirm nor deny the report.

 

DreamWorks inked a deal with Aaron Sorkin to write the script for the project in July. Spielberg is producing alongside Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald.

 

"Chicago Seven" is not without competition for Spielberg's attentions.

 

He also has a project about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War in the works. That project has a script and leading thesp in the bag.

 

Tony Kushner, the "Angels in America" playwright who rewrote Eric Roth's script for "Munich," has delivered the script, based on a Doris Kearns Goodwin book, and Liam Neeson is attached to play Lincoln.

 

Spielberg is also lined up to direct one of the 3-D toons in the "Tintin" trilogy, which is being produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy. Jackson will also helm one of the pics, the first of which is skedded to begin principal photography in September.

[Bette Davis 0]

Original Chicago 7

 

Last week we learned that Sacha Baron Cohen had been cast in Steven Spielberg’s post-Indiana Jones film The Trial of the Chicago Seven as protestor Abbie Hoffman. Now the rest of the cast seems to be taking shape, and Spielberg may be stacking it with A-listers.

 

According to a rumor from Vanity Fair, Will Smith, Taye Diggs, Adam Arkin, Kevin Spacey, and Philip Seymour Hoffman could be attached to the project. The film follows the story of Vietnam war protestors who interrupted the 1968 Democratic convention in a violent confrontation, so there are likely plenty of major parts to go around. Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.

 

I like that Will Smith’s name is suddenly being tossed around in the same breath with “serious” actors and perennial Oscar contenders like Spacey and Hoffman. Maybe I Am Legend had a little something to do with that. For now though, his involvement and that of the other actors Vanity Fair lists, is just rumored. Spielberg is still busy finishing up Indiana Jones, a movie which, despite producer/writer George Lucas’s negativity to the contrary, we’re all dying to see.

 

 

 

OHNOTHEYDIDN'T

[ElleDriver 0]

SPIELBERG’S SCREEN 'TEST’

NY POST

 

February 10, 2008 -- IT'S impossible to think Steven Spielberg would be terrified by anybody he directed. But the Oscar-winner admits he was jolted to learn that on his first-ever TV gig at age 21, he'd be taking on temperamental legend Joan Crawford. "It was like being told to make love to Marilyn Monroe," Spielberg tells Charlotte Chandler in her new Crawford bio, "Not the Girl Next Door,".

 

But the two got along great and Spielberg said he learned a great deal from her

[ElleDriver 0]

Spielberg pulls out of Olympics

Move marks public relations blow to China

 

Steven Spielberg has decided not to participate in the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing as an artistic adviser, citing the lack of progress in ending the genocide in Darfur.

 

The move marks a public relations blow to the Chinese government as it tries to prevent the Games from being politicized, not just on the Darfur crisis but other issues.

 

"After careful consideration, I have decided to formally announce the end of my involvement as one of the overseas artistic advisers to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games," Spielberg said in a statement released today.

 

"I have made repeated efforts to encourage the Chinese government to use its unique influence to bring safety and stability to the Darfur region of Sudan," Spielberg wrote. "Although some progress has been made ...the situation continues to worsen and the violence continues to accelerate."

 

"With this in mind, I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue with business as usual," he added. "At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies, but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that will continue to be committed in Darfur."

 

Spielberg noted that the Olympic Organizing Committee had sent him a contract nearly a year ago, but he left it unsigned.

variety

[l1zz1e 0]

Good for him!

 

I plan to boycott the Olympics.

[ElleDriver 0]

MIA'S MUSCLE

Page Six

 

February 14, 2008 -- MIA Farrow is thankful Steven Spielberg finally listened to her and dropped out of the Chinese "Genocide Olympics" - even if he only came around after she shamed him in Page Six. In a statement, Farrow told us, "In an extraordinary act of conscience, Steven Spielberg ended his involvement as an artistic director of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Let us hope that Mr. Spielberg's decisive action will influence other participants, sponsors and supporters of the Olympic Games to speak out. This is the time to increase pressure on China, the host country of the Olympics and, tragically, the underwriter of the Darfur genocide."