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The Oscar winning director has announced the release dates of two upcoming movies.
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As he approaches the age of 70, multiple Oscar winning director and producer Steven Spielberg shows no signs that he is ready to retire. His DreamWorks movie studios have announced that its joint venture with Disney currently being produced by Spielberg, an as of yet untitled Cold War spy thriller, will be released on Oct. 16, 2015. It will star two time Oscar winning actor Tom Hanks.
The movie is currently being rewritten by Joel and Ethan Cohen who won Oscars for their screenplays for the movies Fargo and No Country for Old Men. The brothers joined the project last month and are updating a script first written by Matt Charman.
It is based on the true story of James Donovan, the American attorney who the CIA secretly engaged to negotiate the 1962 release of U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers whose plain was famously shot down over Russia. Donovan will be played by Tom Hanks.
The actor has worked with Spielberg three time before on the movies Catch me If You Can, The Terminal and Saving Private Ryan, for which the director won an Oscar.
This project marks the first time that Mr. Spielberg will personally direct a movie since he completed Lincoln in 2011.
The two studios have also announced that Spielberg’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s book The BFG will be released on July 1, 2016, just in time for America’s Independence Day. The director officially committed to The BFG project in April. The movie will tell the story of a little girl who leads a big, friendly giant and the Queen of England on a journey to stop fiercer, man-eating giants from devouring children. Melissa Mathison, who last worked with Spielberg on E.T., has been chosen to write the script based on the novel for which DreamWorks acquired the film rights in 2010.
Frank Marshall is signed to produce it and Michael Siegel and John Madden will be the executive producers. Madden was originally signed to direct The BFG, but chose instead to direct a sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
When The BFG comes out in two years it will have to compete with Fox’s Independence Day 2, Sony’s Angry Birds and Warner Brothers Tarzan, which are all due out the same time.
As if all this were not enough for the iconic director, he is also considering directing the DreamWorks and Fox Studios co-production Robopocalypse as well as the historical drama Montezuma.
Spielberg is also planning to direct a fifth installment of the Indiana Jones series.
Recently America’s fifteen year old first daughter, Malia Obama, made news when she worked as a production assistant for a day on the set of Spielberg’s upcoming science fiction television show The Extant, starring Halle Berry. Spielberg was a large contributor to President Obama, having donated $1 million to the President’s super pac.
To call Steven Spielberg prolific would be an understatement. He has produced more than 140 movies and television programs and personally directed 50 movies in the last forty five years.
The director/producer has won three Oscars: Two for best director (Saving Private Ryan 1988 and Schindler’s List 1993) and one for best picture (Schindler’s List).
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