Update: January 19, 2018
Steven Speilberg Eyeing INDIANA JONES 5 or WEST WIDE STORY as His Next Film
Hot off directing back to back pictures in the Oscar contender
The Post and the upcoming
Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg is now figuring out his next two directorial vehicles. There are several percolating, but sources say he is eyeing
Indiana Jones, and then would either precede or follow quickly with another pic. Deadline is hearing that one might be his dream project, a new version of
West Side Story. Spielberg’s camp had no comment on his plans.
Deadline revealed back in 2015 that Spielberg had his eye on his
Jurassic World star Chris Pratt to be a central part of the franchise relaunch, alongside Harrison Ford. Not sure if that is set in stone, but the prospect of Spielberg relaunching the franchise he hatched with pal George Lucas makes Disney’s acquisition of LucasFilm seem even more brilliant in hindsight. That franchise moved from Paramount and came with all the
Star Wars stuff. David Koepp wrote the Indy script. Disney dated it for 2020.
Spielberg has long been interested in a new version of the 1961 classic movie
West Side Story, which was co-directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins from the Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical. Frequent Spielberg collaborator Tony Kushner has been working on the script.
Unsure how quickly Spielberg will move from one project to the next, but his history of multi-tasking is strong. That included the time he made Jurassic Park and
Schindler’s List back to back. It made for a memorable 1993, with Jurassic proving a huge summer hit that spawned a franchise and theme park rides at Universal, and then
Schindler’s List winning Best Picture. He did something similar with
Ready Player One, with early footage from the Ernest Cline novel adaptation that got the Comic-Con crowd all hot and bothered last summer in San Diego. Warner Bros releases it March 30 and we’ll know Tuesday how
The Post fares with Oscar nominations.
Sources said that Spielberg could fall for another script — if you got a good one, now’s the time to send it — and could possibly do a film before Indy if one hits him like a lightning bolt the way that Liz Hannah’s script for
The Post did.
Steven Spielberg Eyes Indiana Jones and ‘West Side Story’ Atop Next Directing Vehicles