Steven Spielberg

1975–1980: Magician

Producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown took a chance by giving Spielberg the opportunity to direct Jaws (1975), a thriller based on Peter Benchley's bestseller. In it, a great white shark attacks beachgoers at a resort town, prompting police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a veteran shark hunter (Robert Shaw). Jaws was the first film shot on open ocean, so shooting proved difficult, especially when the mechanical shark malfunctioned. The shooting schedule overran by a hundred days, and Universal threatened to cancel production. Against expectations, Jaws was a success, setting the domestic box-office record and making Spielberg a household name. It won Academy Awards for Best Film Editing (Verna Fields), Academy Award for Best Original Score (John Williams) and Best Sound (Robert Hoyt, Roger Heman, Earl Madery and John Carter). Spielberg said the malfunctioning mechanical shark resulted in a better movie, as he had to find other ways to suggest the villain's presence. Kael called it the "most cheerfully perverse scare movie ever made", adding "it’s funny in a Woody Allen way." She quoted Alfred Hitchcock as saying Spielberg thought outside the visual dynamics of the theater: "he’s the first one of us who doesn’t think in terms of the proscenium arch. With him, there’s nothing but the camera lens."

After declining an offer to make Jaws 2, Spielberg and Dreyfuss reunited to work on a film about UFOs, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Spielberg used 65 mm film for the best picture quality, and a new live-action recording system so recordings could be duplicated later. He cast one of his favorite directors, François Truffaut, as the scientist Claude Lacombe and worked with special effects expert Douglas Trumbull. It marked the first of many collaborations between Spielberg and editor Michael Kahn. One of the rare films both written and directed by Spielberg, Close Encounters won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond) and Best Sound Effects Editing (Frank Warner). Stanley Kauffmann wrote: "I saw Close Encounters at its first public showing in New York, and most of the audience stayed...to watch the credits crawl lengthily at the end. For one thing, under the credits the giant spaceship was returning to the stars. For another, they just didn't want to leave this picture. For still another, they seemed to understand the importance of those many names to what they had just seen." Kauffmann placed it first on his list of the best American films from 1968 to 1977. Kael called Spielberg "a magician in the age of movies".

His next directorial work was 1941 (1979), an action-comedy written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale about Californians preparing for a Japanese invasion after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Spielberg was self-conscious about doing comedy as he had no prior experience in it. Universal and Columbia agreed to co-finance the film. 1941 grossed more than $92 million worldwide upon release, but most critics, and the studio heads, disliked it. Charles Champlin described 1941 as "the most conspicuous waste since the last major oil spill, which it somewhat resembles."

1981–1992: Impresario

Spielberg directed Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), with a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. They considered it a homage to the serials of the 1930s and 40s. It starred Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones and Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood. Filmed in La Rochelle, Hawaii, Tunisia and Elstree Studios, England, the shoot was difficult but Spielberg said it helped him hone his business acumen. The film was a box-office success and won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction (Norman Reynolds, Leslie Dilley and Michael D. Ford); Best Film Editing (Michael Kahn); Best Sound (Bill Varney, Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker and Roy Charman); Best Sound Editing (Ben Burtt and Richard L. Anderson) and Best Visual Effects (Richard Edlund, Kit West, Bruce Nicholson and Joe Johnston). Roger Ebert wrote: "Raiders of the Lost Ark is an out-of-body experience, a movie of glorious imagination and breakneck speed that grabs you in the first shot, hurtles you through a series of incredible adventures, and deposits you back in reality two hours later–breathless, dizzy, wrung-out, and with a silly grin on your face". Raiders was the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise.

Spielberg returned to science fiction with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). It tells the story of Elliot (Henry Thomas), a young boy who befriends an alien who was left behind by his companions and is trying to return home. Spielberg eschewed storyboards so his direction would be more spontaneous and shot roughly in sequence so the actors' performances would be authentic as they bonded with E.T. Richard Corliss wrote, "This was the closing-night attraction at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, a venue not known for blubbering sentiment. At the end, as the little critter bade his farewells and the Jules Verne-like space ship left the ground, the audience similarly levitated. One heard the audience's childlike applause; one felt their spirits lift. This was rapture made audible, palpable... Spielberg orchestrated the movements of the camera and the puppet spaceman with the feelings of—it has to be called love—expressed in young Henry Thomas' yearning face. E.T. was the first film character to be a finalist in TIME's Man of the Year sweepstakes. It would have been fine with me if the little creature, this lovely film, had won."

A special screening was organized for Ronald and Nancy Reagan, who were emotional by the end. E.T. grossed $700 million worldwide. It won four Academy Awards: Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Sound (Robert Knudson, Robert Glass, Don Digirolamo and Gene Cantamessa), Best Sound Editing (Charles L. Campbell and Ben Burtt) and Best Visual Effects (Carlo Rambaldi, Dennis Muren and Kenneth F. Smith). Kael wrote of E.T., "His voice is ancient and otherworldly but friendly, humorous. And this scaly, wrinkled little man with huge, wide-apart, soulful eyes and a jack-in-the-box neck has been so fully created that he's a friend to us, too; when he speaks of his longing to go home the audience becomes as mournful as Elliot. Spielberg has earned the tears that some people in the audience—and not just children—shed. Genuinely entrancing movies are almost as rare as extraterrestrial visitors." Spielberg co-wrote and produced Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982), released the same summer as E.T. With John Landis, he produced the anthology film Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), contributing the "Kick the Can" segment.

His next film was the Raiders prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), shot in the US, Sri Lanka and China. It was darker than its predecessor, and led to the creation of the PG-13 rating because some content was deemed unsuitable for children under 13. Spielberg said he was unhappy with Temple of Doom because it lacked his "personal touches and love". Nonetheless, the film was a blockbuster hit, won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and got good reviews. Kael preferred it to the original, writing, "Spielberg is like a magician whose tricks are so daring they make you laugh. He creates an atmosphere of happy disbelief: the more breathtaking and exhilarating the stunts are the funnier they are. Nobody has ever fused thrills and laughter in quite the way that he does here. He starts off at full charge in the opening sequence and just keeps going". Ebert wrote "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom makes no apologies for being exactly what it is: Exhilarating, manic, wildly imaginative escapism. No apologies are necessary. This is the most cheerfully exciting, bizarre, goofy, romantic adventure movie since Raiders, and it is high praise to say that it’s not so much a sequel as an equal." On the project, Spielberg met his future wife, Kate Capshaw. Spielberg recalled, "It was a good learning exercise for me to really throw myself into a black hole. I came out of the darkness of Temple Of Doom and I entered the light of the woman I was eventually going to marry and raise a family with."

Thomson writes that "At first sight, the Spielberg of the eighties may seem more an impresario—or a studio, even—than a director." Between 1984 and 1990, Spielberg served as producer or executive producer on nineteen films. In the early 1980s, Spielberg befriended Warner Communications CEO Steve Ross, leading Spielberg to make films for Warner Bros. The first was The Color Purple (1985), an adaptation of Alice Walker's novel about a generation of empowered African-American women in the Depression-era South. It was Spielberg's first film on a dramatic subject, and he expressed reservations about tackling the project: "It's the risk of being judged-and accused of not having the sensibility to do character studies." Starring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, the film was a box-office hit and critics started to take note of Spielberg's foray into drama. Ebert named it the best film of the year. The film received eleven Academy Award nominations and Spielberg won Best Director from the Directors Guild of America.

As China underwent economic reform and opened up to the American film industry, Spielberg made Empire of the Sun (1987), the first American film shot in Shanghai since the 1930s. It is an adaptation of J. G. Ballard's autobiographical novel about Jamie Graham (Christian Bale), a boy who goes from being the son of a wealthy British family in Shanghai to a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. David Lean was originally set to direct, with Spielberg producing. It was written by Tom Stoppard and co-starred John Malkovich as an American expatriate. Critical reaction was mixed; criticism ranged from the "overwrought" plot to Spielberg's downplaying of "disease and starvation". However, Andrew Sarris named it the best film of the year and one of the best of the decade. He wrote: "The film is a fusion of kinesthetic energy with literary sensibility, pulse-pounding adventure with exquisitely delicate sensitivity.” Corliss wrote that "Spielberg has energized each frame with allusive legerdemain and an intelligent density of images and emotions." It was a disappointment at the box office, possibly because it was released around the same time as John Boorman's similarly themed Hope and Glory. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards,; Ian Alterman, in The New York Times thought it had been overlooked. Spielberg recalled that Empire of the Sun was one of his most enjoyable films to make. Thomson called it "a great work through and through" and "the first clear sign that Spielberg the showman was an artist, too."

Spielberg intended to direct Rain Man but instead made Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) to meet his contractual obligations. A longtime James Bond fan, Spielberg cast Sean Connery as Jones's father, Henry Jones, Sr. Due to complaints about violence in Temple of Doom, Spielberg returned to more family-friendly fare for the third installment. Last Crusade received positive reviews and was a box-office success, earning $474 million; it was his biggest hit since E.T. Joseph McBride called it a comeback for Spielberg, and Spielberg acknowledged how much he has learned from the Indiana Jones films. Ebert wrote that "Raiders of the Lost Ark, now more than ever, seems a turning point in the cinema of escapist entertainment, and there was really no way Spielberg could make it new all over again. What he has done is to take many of the same elements, and apply all of his craft and sense of fun to make them work yet once again. And they do."

That year, he reunited with Richard Dreyfuss for the romantic drama Always, about an aerial firefighter. It is a modern remake of one of Spielberg's favorite childhood films, A Guy Named Joe (1943). He said, "As a child I was very frustrated, and maybe I saw my own parents [in A Guy Named Joe]. I was also short of girlfriends. And it stuck with me." Spielberg had discussed the film with Dreyfuss in 1975, and up to twelve drafts were written before filming commenced. It costarred Holly Hunter and John Goodman and was the final film role for Audrey Hepburn. Janet Maslin wrote that while "Always is filled with big, sentimental moments, it lacks the intimacy to make any of this very moving."

After a brief setback in which he felt "artistically stalled", Spielberg returned with Hook (1991), about a middle-aged Peter Pan (Robin Williams), who returns to Neverland and encounters Tinker Bell (Julia Roberts) and the eponymous Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman). The stars clashed on set, and Spielberg told 60 Minutes that he would never work with Roberts again. The studio enjoyed the film but most critics did not; Desson Howe described it as "too industrially organized". At the box office, it earned more than $300 million worldwide from a $70 million budget.

1993–1998: Oscar winner

In 1993, Spielberg returned with Jurassic Park, based on Michael Crichton's bestseller, with a screenplay by Crichton and David Koepp. Jurassic Park follows John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), who has hired geneticists to create a wildlife park of de-extinct dinosaurs. It features Sam Neill and Laura Dern as paleontologists and Jeff Goldblum as mathematiican Ian Malcolm. In a departure from his usual order of planning, Spielberg and the designers storyboarded certain sequences from the novel early on. The film combined practical effects by Stan Winston and computer-generated imagery provided by Industrial Light & Magic; Jurassic Park eclipsed E.T. as the highest-grossing film to date, and won three Academy Awards.

That year, Spielberg directed Schindler's List, about Oskar Schindler, a businessman who helped save 1,100 Jews from The Holocaust. Spielberg waited ten years to make the film as he did not feel "mature" enough. He wanted to embrace his heritage, and after the birth of his son, Max, he said that "it greatly affected me [...] A spirit began to ignite in me, and I became a Jewish dad". Principal photography began on March 1, 1993, in Kraków, Poland, while Spielberg supervised the post-production of Jurassic Park. To make filming "bearable", Spielberg brought his wife and children with him. Schindler's List won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Spielberg's first as Best Director. It also won seven BAFTAs, and three Golden Globes.

Ebert wrote, "Flaubert once wrote that he disliked Uncle Tom's Cabin because the author was constantly preaching against slavery. 'Does one have to make observations about slavery?' he asked. 'Depict it; that's enough.' And then he added, 'An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.' That would describe Spielberg, the author of this film. He depicts the evil of the Holocaust, and he tells an incredible story of how it was robbed of some of its intended victims. He does so without the tricks of his trade, the directorial and dramatic contrivances that would inspire the usual melodramatic payoffs. Spielberg is not visible in this film. But his restraint and passion are present in every shot." Filmmaker Claude Lanzmann criticized the film for its weak representation of the Holocaust. Imre Kertész, a Hungarian author and concentration camp survivor, disliked the film, 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." Thomson calls it "the most moving film I have ever seen."

Spielberg used his percentage of profits to start the Shoah Foundation, a non-profit organization that archives testimonies of Holocaust survivors.In response to meeting Holocaust survivors during the filming of Schindler's List, Spielberg decided to use some of the proceeds from the film to establish the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation in 1994. The goal was to record the testimonies of survivors "before it was too late". Over 50,000 survivors were recorded. In 2006 the foundation transferred its archives to the University of Southern California and the name was changed to the Visual History Archive (VHA) at the USC Shoah Foundation.

1999–2012: Master of technology

Spielberg returned to science fiction with A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), a loose adaptation of Brian Aldiss's short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long" (1969). Stanley Kubrick had bought the rights to the story in 1979 and wor

Other ventures

Production

Spielberg's first film as an executive producer was the directorial debut of Robert Zemeckis, I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978). He produced Zemeckis's dark comedy Used Cars (1980), which was a critical but not a commercial success. In 1980, Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall founded Amblin Productions; the first film it produced was the romantic comedy Continental Divide (Michael Apted, 1981). It went on to produce Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984), The Goonies (Richard Donner, 1985), Back to the Future (Zemeckis, 1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Zemeckis, 1988), Arachnophobia (Marshall, 1990), Joe Versus the Volcano (John Patrick Shanley, 1990), Twister (Jan de Bont, 1996), Men in Black (Barry Sonnenfeld, 1997) and The Mask of Zorro (Martin Campbell, 1998). For some, including Young Sherlock Holmes (Barry Levinson, 1985) and Harry and the Hendersons (William Dear, 1987), the title "Steven Spielberg Presents" was in the opening credits. It produced Don Bluth's animated films An American Tail (1986) and The Land Before Time (1988), leading to the spin-off Amblimation. In 1985, NBC offered Spielberg a two-year contract on a television series, Amazing Stories; the show was marketed as a blend of The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. NBC gave Spielberg creative control and a budget of $1 million for each episode. After two seasons and disappointing ratings, the show was not renewed. Although Spielberg's involvement as a producer would vary widely from project to project, Zemeckis said that Spielberg would always "respect the filmmaker's vision". Over the next decade, Spielberg's record as a producer brought mixed critical and commercial results. He produced cartoons such as Brad Bird's Family Dog and Tom Ruegger's Animaniacs, Freakazoid! and Pinky and the Brain. In 1992, Spielberg began to scale back producing, saying "Producing has been the least fulfilling aspect of what I've done in the last decade." He produced the documentary A Brief History of Time by Errol Morris.

In 1993, Spielberg served as an executive producer for the NBC science fiction series seaQuest DSV; the show was not a hit. In 1994, he found success producing the medical drama ER. That year, Spielberg founded DreamWorks with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Spielberg cited greater creative control and distribution improvements as the main reasons for founding his own studio; he and his partners compared themselves to the founders of United Artists in 1919. DreamWorks' investors included Microsoft founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates. After founding DreamWorks, Spielberg continued to operate Amblin Entertainment and direct films for other studios. He helped design Jurassic Park: The Ride at Universal Studios Florida. The workload of filmmaking and operating a studio raised questions about his commitments, but Spielberg maintained that "this is all fitting nicely into my life and I'm still home by six and I'm still home on the weekends." In 1998, DreamWorks Animation produced its first full-length animated features, Antz and The Prince of Egypt. Shrek (2001) was the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Spielberg and Tom Hanks produced Band of Brothers (2001), a ten-part HBO miniseries based on Stephen E. Ambrose's book. It follows Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. It won a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries. He produced Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), an adaptation of Arthur Golden's novel. Spielberg and Zemeckis executive-produced Monster House (2006), marking their eighth collaboration. He co-produced Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006). Spielberg served as executive producer for Disturbia, (2007) and the Transformers film series. That same year, Spielberg and Mark Burnett co-produced On the Lot, a reality and competition show about filmmaking. Spielberg returned to the World War II theme, co-producing the 2010 miniseries The Pacific with Hanks and Gary Goetzman. It is centered on the battles in the Pacific Theater. The next year, Spielberg co-created Falling Skies, a science fiction series on TNT, with Robert Rodat and produced the 2011 Fox series Terra Nova and J. J. Abrams's Super 8.

In January 2013, HBO confirmed that it was developing a World War II miniseries based on the book Donald L. Miller's Masters of the Air with Spielberg and Hanks. NME reported in March 2017 that production was under the working title The Mighty Eighth. By 2019, it was confirmed development of the miniseries, now titled Masters of the Air, had moved to Apple TV+. The series premiered on January 26, 2024. On January 18, 2023, Spielberg told press at a red carpet event for The Fabelmans that he was executive producing a documentary about John Williams, directed by Laurent Bouzereau with production companies Amblin Television, Imagine Documentaries, and Nedland Media. Other executive producers for the film include Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, Justin Wilkes, Sara Bernstein, and Meredith Kaulfers. The announcement came days after Williams suggested that he might not retire from film scoring as he had previously announced. The film, Music by John Williams, premiered at the 2024 AFI Fest.

Upcoming and prospective projects

In May 2009, Spielberg bought the rights to the life story of Martin Luther King Jr., with the intention of serving as both producer and director. 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. In March 2013, Spielberg announced that he was developing a miniseries based on the life of Napoleon. In May 2016, it was announced that Cary Joji Fukunaga was in talks to direct the miniseries for HBO, from a script by David Leland based on extensive research materials accumulated by Stanley Kubrick over the years.

Spielberg was set to film an adaptation of David I. Kertzer's The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara in early 2017, for release at the end of that year, but production was ultimately postponed. It was first announced in 2014, with Tony Kushner adapting the book for the screen. Mark Rylance, in his fourth collaboration with Spielberg, was announced to star in the role of Pope Pius IX. Spielberg saw more than 2,000 children to play the role of the young Edgardo Mortara. In 2015, it was announced that Spielberg was attached to direct an adaptation of American photojournalist Lynsey Addario's memoir It's What I Do, with Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role. In April 2018, it was announced that Spielberg would direct a film adaptation of the Blackhawk comic book series. Warner Bros. would distribute the film with David Koepp writing the script.

On June 21, 2021, it was announced that Amblin Entertainment signed a deal with Netflix to release multiple new feature films for the streaming service. Under the deal, Amblin is expected to produce at least two films a year for Netflix for an unspecified number of years. In February 2022, Deadline Hollywood reported that Spielberg was developing an original film centered around the character Frank Bullitt, a fictional San Francisco police officer originally portrayed by Steve McQueen in the 1968 film Bullitt. The screenplay is set to be written by Josh Singer, who previously co-wrote The Post for Spielberg. McQueen's son Chad and granddaughter Molly will serve as executive producers. Bradley Cooper was cast as Bullitt in November 2022 and will also serve as producer alongside Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger.

On February 14, 2025, it was announced that The Goonies 2 was in the works with Spielberg producing. On November 6, 2025, it was announced that Spielberg will serve as an executive producer for Gremlins 3 which will be released on November 19, 2027.

During the 2026 South by Southwest, Spielberg confirmed that his next major project will be a Western film. He stated that it will subvert the classic mythology of the American frontier without relying on the genre's typical stereotypes.

Video games

Spielberg has been an avid gamer since 1974. He played many of LucasArts adventure games, including the first Monkey Island games.

In 1995, Spielberg helped create and design LucasArts' adventure game The Dig. He also collaborated with software publishers Knowledge Adventure on the game Steven Spielberg's Director's Chair, which was released in 1996; Spielberg appears in the game to direct the player.

In 2005, Spielberg collaborated with Electronic Arts (EA) on several games including one for the Wii called Boom Blox, and its sequel Boom Blox Bash Party. He is also the creator of EA's Medal of Honor series.

He dislikes the use of cutscenes in games, stating in a 2008 interview that "The second the game is returned to you and it's under your control, you forget everything the interstitials are trying to impact you with, and you just go back to shooting things, and that has not found its way into a universal narrative, and I think more has to be done in that arena. [...] I applaud them for at least attempting to tell a story."

Theatre

Spielberg first ventured into theatre producing in 1997, with his involvement on a production of The Diary of Anne Frank, as well as the original 1998 production of The Farnsworth Invention. In 2022, he made his Broadway producing debut as a co-producer on the musical A Strange Loop. He went on to produce the stage musical adaptations of Water for Elephants and Death Becomes Her alongside his wife Kate Capshaw, both in 2024. He will next co-produce the upcoming stage adaptation of Smash, based on the 2012 NBC television series of the same name, on which he served as an executive producer. It was set to begin performances in 2025.

Stalkers

In 1997, Jonathan Norman stalked Spielberg and attempted to enter his home while in possession of a "rape kit"; Norman was subsequently jailed for 25 years. Prosecutors described Norman as "sexually obsessed" with the director. Spielberg told the court he feared Norman intended to "rape or maim him". In 2001, Spielberg was stalked by conspiracy theorist and former social worker Diana Napolis. She accused him and actress Jennifer Love Hewitt of installing a mind-control device in her brain and being part of a satanic cult. Napolis was committed to a mental institution, and pled guilty to stalking. She was released on probation with a condition that she have no contact with either Spielberg or Hewitt.