The Steven Spielberg Conversation

25:45Sean Fennessey:You know, I've been thinking about your films and their relationship to technology, And a lot of contemporary filmmakers, celebrated filmmakers, have been spending a lot of time making period pieces in the last 15 years. And the reason they cite for that frequently is smartphones. That there's something essentially uncinematic about someone looking at their phone. And you've been making some period pieces recently, but Disclosure Day seems to be contemporary. I'm just kind of curious how you feel about that. I haven't made a lot of contemporary films. I mean, most of my films do take place in the past.

26:17a couple in the future like Disclosure Day and Minority Report. But I'm, no, I don't do a lot of contemporary stories. I'm drawn, I'm drawn, really drawn like a magnet to history. And so I love history. I love reading biographies and history was the only subject I was any good at in high school, actually. It really was. And so that's been my fascination, inspired by my dad, who loved history himself. My dad was a science fiction reader, but he also was a history reader. He brought me into the importance of reading biographies and stories about the Holocaust or the Civil War. But I don't, in a way that I'm not, nothing's anathema about present-day stories for me, But I just found so much richness in stories about the past.

27:17Sean Fennessey:I was really struck re-watching E.T. by how patient the movie is. And I feel like contemporary movies and the expectations of contemporary audiences is for more speed. Have you felt in the last 25 years that your films have started to move faster? Have you been affected by how fast life is? Yeah, films move really fast. I mean, films move so fast, sometimes I have to actually, you know, well, it's good if you see a film again because it moves too fast. We like that. But that's not the reason you should see a film a second time. You should see a film a second time because you were profoundly moved in some way by it.

27:57But films are moving faster. And it all started with the music video. The whole music video generation of that propulsive action and cramming in two and a half minutes a lot of cuts. A lot of montage in two and a half minutes. And then commercials, television commercials began moving faster. This is before films started to pick up speed to keep abreast of music videos and commercials back in the 80s. And now there is just with everything available, TikTok and Instagram. I'm not on any of these things, by the way. Me neither. not that not that not that not that i don't not that i have a any kind of a personal thing to it it's just that it eats up the clock i mean i mean i put instagram on my phone for two weeks and i had missing time as if i had been abducted by aliens i mean i was going through that missing time dilemma you know that where did that time go and and so in a way and that's all moving really fast because these are just visual sound bites.

29:09And so I find that things are speeding up a lot. So that's why like this year, a film like Train Dreams, a meditation on an entire life covering nearly 75 years, but done under two hours, just made me so happy to have that film in the world this year.

29:27Sean Fennessey:Do you feel that speed getting in your films at all though? Been getting into my film? Yeah. Have you felt like your films are moving faster in any way? Well, Disclosure Day moves really fast. It's fast, yeah. Okay, I've been trying to figure something out. And I've talked to a few people about this. And this is something you hear about your work, that you are the single greatest visual designer in movies. That when it comes to blocking, moving the camera, that is something that you have a preternatural ability to. But then I've also recently heard Tom Hanks say that on the set of some movies, you'll show up one day and you'll sort of know what you want to do, but you won't have it really mapped out.

30:07Sean Fennessey:And you'll say, I kind of have to figure out how I'm going to do this. I thought that was really fascinating that he said that. So can you just kind of talk us through how you do what you do from storyboard to showing up on the day to knowing where you want the camera to be? Well, it depends on the film. If it's a film that has a lot of VFX, everything's storyboarded. It has to be. Because I'm dealing with a very large budget on a special effects film, so everything has to be planned ahead of time. But there are other films that I've made where I didn't do any planning at all. I never had a single storyboard on Schindler's List.

30:44I didn't have a single storyboard on Saving Private Ryan, which we shot mostly in continuity. and those are the most fun for me because I surprise myself. I wake up in the morning and I know the page count that I need to cover but I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to cover it yet and that's what's exciting. It's exciting getting on a set with no real plan except to tell the story in the best way I could possibly tell it and I love doing that in collaboration with crew, but also especially with actors. Because the thing that I love about actors, if you cast your film right, you're not just getting someone who is going to give you a great performance, you're getting someone who has a deep, meaningful understanding of the film that all of us are making together in this collaborative art form, which is movies and television.

31:40And so that way, I can be more collaborative with Tom Cruise. And, you know, Tom Cruise showed up every morning when I show up. I show up before the crew. So I'll get to the set signs sometimes at 630 in the morning. On my Norty report, N.A. War of the Worlds, Tom would insist on getting there when I got there so we could map out the whole day, which was really helpful to me. So there were films like that with Hanks and I, where I'm really collaborative with the person who is carrying the film. And there are other films where it's just kind of myself going into a bit of a, I guess, a little bit of a meditation to really figure out.

32:23And what's good about going into meditation, I also meditate, but that's a different kind of meditation. When I get to the set in the morning, there is something that happens, which is beautiful. There's an entire day of possibilities as yet undiscovered, but what possibility will I choose first? And that's the most exciting thing about this. I get a little bit bored when I do a heavy VFX film, when I know what the day is going to be like. It's already mapped out. Everybody knows what we're doing. It's so much better getting out there like I did with a movie like The Fablements, which was my own story, where I could actually go into a deep communion with my younger self to figure out how to tell that story in a way.

33:12Because that film I made, I've often said that film was, it was$40 million of therapy that DreamWorks paid for, Amblin paid for. But something like that was exactly the example I'm giving. I'd show up in the morning and I I would just say, I know the camera needs to be here, but don't ask me why I know the camera needs to be here. It just does. So there's something about when you're flying by the seat of your pants, our best friend is our intuition. That's our best friend on any movie. Any filmmaker should tell you that, that your instincts, your intuition is your best friend. And if you listen to it, if you let it carry you through the day, it's a lot better than intellectualizing and thinking something through too thoroughly.

33:59Sean Fennessey:You know, you were asked some years ago what the key single theme of your work is, and you said communication, which I thought was a really interesting answer. And I'm wondering how you communicate, because you just described this process of something dawning on you and following your intuition. But on a film set, there are dozens, sometimes hundreds of people. You've got those millions of dollars from Amblin and DreamWorks to think about. How do you talk to people? How do you get them to get what you want? Well, I don't do it by explaining why I want it. Because then you sit around in a circle, and I don't know why I want things.

34:36I just said the intuition is often my best friend, and I listen to the whispers more than I listen to the loud voice of the brain. The whispers of the intuition speak stronger to me than my brain, which is always trying to take over and get me to listen to it. It's a fight between this and that often. And so when I'm racing around and I put the camera somewhere and I know what the blocking needs to be, I just need the cast to trust me. So if I say, this is where I think you should stand and I think this is why you should go, when you should go to the door. And later I'll tell them why, but I got to get it out of me first.

35:11So I'll do a whole blocking with second team. The actors are still in hair and makeup and I'm blocking the entire shot with second team. So when the actors come out having worked with me before or having known my process, they'll know to kind of stand where I'm kind of asking them to move and when to move and why the camera is moving with them. And then later, as we're lighting it, I'll sit down and say, OK, here's why I want you to do something that you probably weren't preparing for when you were memorizing your lines the night before. But this is why I think it needs to be this way. and every once in a while an actor will come up more than every once in a while and they'll say but i just feel here's why i think i need to sit here for at least these five lines without getting up and they'll convince me that they're right and they'll get to be able to do it their way but i need to i need to be able to do the first pass at the blocking because blocking is so important on movies and television shows and if you want to watch great blocking just go back and look at anything that Ilya Kazan ever directed.

36:16Go back and look at Mike Nichols, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and The Graduate. Look at that blocking. Look at the blocking of Casablanca. Look at basically Michael Curtiz, the way he blocked the camera. And watch TCM. Ladies and gentlemen, watch TCM. because you're going to see you're you're going to see storytelling uh uh the way i wish everybody would be telling their stories in the modern in these in these modern times uh some of the best stories were told a long time ago there are great stories still being told today by far like sinners and and one battle after the other i mean my god you know um uh so many films are from hamnet Chloe Zhao.

37:02But I always say to film students, yes, learn from your peers, learn from your heroes today, but don't forget to learn from my heroes, our heroes that taught me my stuff. And all of my heroes made movies in the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s.

37:25Sean Fennessey:Related question, because this wasn't as true for those filmmakers, but now I'm always curious when you're shooting a big scene, a complicated scene, the truck chase in Raiders of the Lost Ark or the initial invasion in War of the Worlds. And answer this like I'm five years old. How do you know you're getting it? How do you know that what you're capturing on film is actually going to work on a big screen? only when you tell me it does all of you that's it that's it that's not going to be enough i need more than that that's it's only it's when i when i hear from the audience you know and when i hear from the general feeling of how the film is landing do i know that the things that i thought were going to work are working or the things that i where certain would work aren't working sometimes.

38:24I don't make a lot of comedies, so I don't have that gauge. I don't preview my movies because you have to preview a comedy because you have to see if it's funny. If it's not, you have to call it something else. You can't call it a comedy anymore. But I pretty much think that's the most important test to the film. I didn't know what we had on Jaws. I don't, because I was underwater on that film for nine months, both literally and figuratively. I was underwater on that movie. And I did the best job I knew how to do with what I had available. And because, as you know, the shark didn't work, it made it a better movie.

39:01If the shark worked, it would have only been half as good. If I hadn't met Johnny Williams, it wouldn't have been good at all. But I didn't know what I had until we previewed the picture in Dallas, Texas, in the Medallion Theater in Dallas, Texas. And that was my lucky theater for like my first four films. And I took all my films to Texas, including E.T. we previewed in Houston. We previewed all my films in Texas. And I didn't know what we had until the audience told us what we had. I didn't know what we had until when that little boy was killed on the raft. A man got up and I went, oh my God, our first walkout.

39:41I've gone too far. It was blood coming out of the water. This guy came out, and he started walking up the aisle, and he started running. And I watched him go out the curtains into the lobby, and he was heading for the bathroom, and he vomited all over the floor of the lobby. And I looked at that guy, and then about five minutes later, he came back and took a seat. And that's when I said, we've got a hit.

40:12Sean Fennessey:I've got a five-year-old who's very fond of going to the Academy Museum. And there's a big Jaws exhibit there right now. Right now it is, yeah. And she's been begging me to watch Jaws. And I will not let that happen yet because I need her to like your movies. But I was wondering what it's like to have the burden of other people's nightmares as well as their dreams. Well, welcome. I'd just say welcome to the club because all my movies come from my nightmares. Even the happy ones come from my nightmares. So it's not bad. It's not a terrible thing. This episode is brought to you by Hotels.com. Save Your Way is a new feature on Hotels.com and it's as simple as it sounds.

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41:25Sean Fennessey:Whether it's a big vacation or a quick getaway, from booking your stay to that first meal when you arrive, you're turning your trips into rewards with the Autograph Journey credit card from Wells Fargo. Learn more at wellsfargo.com slash autographjourney. Terms apply. I know that obviously Jaws was a very challenging shoot. Do you remember what was your most joyful time making a movie? E.T. was my most joyful time. I had two really great joyful memories. E.T. was a joyful time making a film because I discovered my love for parenting, not just directing. And then The Fablemans, even though it was painful and highly personal, nothing has ever been more personal to me.

42:06um um it was it was just a joy to be be part of that and also with this closure day i probably stayed i i made such there were such friendships for forged on ready player one you know uh with the cast and myself i haven't walked away to michelle williams and i became very close after the fablemans and of course you know drew became like my other surrogate kid before i even had kids but um i i came away with five true friends after disclosure day and that that's not that's very

42:40Sean Fennessey:important to me this has been a very vital period for you the last 10 15 years you've made a lot of films um i'm curious to hear you talk about what keeps you motivated what keeps you wanting to make more movies well it's just you know i think when once you start once i look i've been i've been telling stories my whole life. I mean, my best stories have never been movies, by the way, because I have seven kids and I put them all to bed at night with stories. I go from room to room like a doctor making calls, you know, from office to office. And so my best stories, actually, my kids have benefited from, not the audiences.

43:20But I just can't stop. I just love that. And that's never going to stop. In other words, I can't envision what it would be like not to do what I do. And that would be the worst nightmare of my life to not get to do what I'm doing.

43:34Sean Fennessey:I think of you as a person who is constantly always at work or working in some fashion, but what do you do when you're not working, when there's not a movie being made? I actually have a life.

43:49Kate has made such a life for me. And we brought seven kids into the world, two of them adopted. We now have six grandchildren. And that is the real stuff. And it's not the stuff that I fall back on when I'm not directing. Directing actually has, in the last 20 years, taken second position to my family and to all of their needs. And that paradigm really changed and it changed very quickly for me. And so that's really my life. And I'm able, and also they keep me relevant because I'm not on social media and my kids are, they tell me the stuff I need to know. And so they keep me, they keep me really current.

44:38Sean Fennessey:When I saw you earlier this week, you were more up on the news than I was. You were like, did you hear about this? I was like, I actually did not hear about this. I'm curious what are the movies that you return to when you want to be inspired or conjure that feeling you had when you were shooting 8mm movies in Arizona well the movie that I remember the movie that inspired me the most when I was a kid was when my dad took me to see Lawrence of Arabia at the big theater in Phoenix I think the Capri Theater I think it was called the Capri Theater in Phoenix, Arizona and that was probably the first time I can remember saying because I wanted to before I saw Lawrence I was making movies I was making 8mm movies but I saw Lawrence Arabia I said I'll never get to do that I mean that's way way out of reach for me I just so admired that film so that film has been an annual tradition and because Marty Scorsese and I and Bob Harris were stored in the 80s who restored Lawrence to Arabia, to the original vision David Lean had before his producer, Sam Spiegel, started to meddle and started to edit without telling David whole scenes out to get more screenings in theaters of that picture.

45:59We were able to restore the film, and I was given a 70-millimeter print of that by Dawn Steele, who was the head of Columbia at the time. And she paid for the restoration. And I'll watch that film on 70 millimeter once a year, especially before I'm starting a movie. What do you see? And the reason I watch that film every year, it keeps me humble. It reminds me, you will never be as good as David Lane.

46:26Sean Fennessey:How does it compare to the first time that you saw it? Are you still discovering things in it? I'm still seeing things in it. And there's a big mystery in Lawrence, Arabia, which I can't figure route that would not be a mystery in the digital age today. We just take it out. It would cost $6 to take it out. But I think there's a silver chewing gum wrapper in the desert on the shot where Lawrence has just gotten on the camel and he and his guide are going to see, you know, you know, Faisal in Faisal's camp. And they just start and the camera, they're on the sand dune, the camera's low on a crane, and as the camera starts to rise up to show the great expanse of the desert, there is a silver object in the sand that is driving me crazy, and I cannot figure out what it is.

47:21That's the kind of detail I see from time to time.

47:24Sean Fennessey:So you've discovered a mistake, is what you're saying? Yeah, a little one. Well, okay, in keeping with that then, you are among the most admired filmmakers in the world. can you share with us a time when you were humbled on set or while making a movie? Well, I was humbled on, I was certainly humbled on the set. I was humbled many times. And the thing that humbles me on the set is always an actor, is always a performance. And, and I was, I've been humbled, luckily I've been humbled a lot on the set. And I don't want to compare one performance to the other, because I was a lot of things like Anthony Hopkins, summation to the Supreme Court in Amistad humbled me.

48:04And Tom Hanks seen where he cries in the crater, you know, wipe me out, totally humbled me. But Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln, when he's trying to explain to his cabinet the urgency of passing the 13th Amendment into constitutional law. It's two shots. Both shots are moving. One shot starts at the end of the table and is slowly moving. It's a four-minute speech. And then with one cutaway to David Strathairn, Secretary of State Seward, the camera then goes into a close-up mode and finishes on his close-up. And I have to this day talking to you about that I've never gotten over that scene or how he played Lincoln and how he became Lincoln for all of us for all that time.

48:58Sean Fennessey:Can you describe that feeling when you, even though you're on set as the director running the show, when you see someone doing something that is moving you like that, does the work stop? Does the movie stop? What is it like? At the end of that scene, at the end of that first take, I had to leave the set. Daniel was worried because as Lincoln, he looked around and the director wasn't on the set. and he asked he calls me he's calls me skipper still to this day calls me skipper and he said where's the skipper and and i think christy said he's christy mccosco who's produced my movies and is one of the greatest producers i've ever experienced in my whole life who's sitting right there today um christy told daniel where to find me and i was in the other room crying and Mr.

49:50Lincoln walked into the room, saw me, sat down next to me and put his arms around me. That was a moment I will never forget too.

49:59Sean Fennessey:I know you don't have a checklist, but I've been going through a lot of interviews over the years and you have talked about kinds of movies you would want to make in the seventies and the eighties. A Western. Yes. That's the one I want to ask. I want to make a Western. I want to shoot it in Texas.

50:20Sean Fennessey:That's where I was leading you. We want to see your Western. What are you waiting for? Well, I can't reveal anything right now, but I have something in development right now. Okay. Yeah.

50:37And it kicks ass.

50:41Sean Fennessey:We like that. In 1978, after Jaws and Close Encounters, you said, quote, I'm still trying to make a career for myself. I'm still fighting so I can be good in my eyes. When I'm good in my eyes, I might even quit. Now, you say you're not going to quit because you want to keep telling stories. But do you feel that you're good in your eyes at this point? What year did I give that quote? 78. Well, I was a kid in 78. What did I know in 78? A kid who made Jaws and Close Encounters, though. Yeah, and then Humble when my next movie came out in 1941. You know, the sine wave of our business, up and down, up and down.

51:20No, I never want to quit. But the thing of it is, every movie is so different. I just remembered that Noel Coward used to say to David Lean, never come out of the same hole. And directors like David Lean had eclectic careers. Every film he made was different. Every film William Wyler made was different. Every film Michael Curtiz made was different. I like the idea. Every film that Paul Thomas Anderson makes has been different. Every film that Christopher Nolan makes has been different. That's the school I belong to. Therefore, every film is a world. Every film is a birth, a life, and a death. Because at the end of every movie, it's like what the French call petit mort, a little death.

52:04You die a little bit when a film is over because you've experienced a full life. And this is what this industry and this art form gives us a chance to do. If we're just not making the same sequel over and over and over again, and it's not the same Marvel title over and over and over again, we all get a real chance to experience something which is precious. And that is why I don't judge my accomplishments based on a single film. But it's basically looking or letting all of you look at the body of my work. I try not to look at the body of my work. I didn't even watch the film clips that were playing up here today.

52:52It was good.

52:53Sean Fennessey:There was some good stuff. Was it good? Yeah. Was it good? Okay, good. I saw a rough cut on my iPhone when Terry Press first sent it to me. But looking out ahead, you know, I always fear if I look back too much, I'll quit looking forward. And so I tend to just keep moving ahead. Is there a film of yours that you feel is underseen or misunderstood or that you think people should take another look at? Yeah, a film that I love making, and I love this story. It was a remake of a 1943 Victor Fleming film called A Guy Named Joe. And I, with Spencer Tracy and Irene Dunn and Van Johnson and James Gleeson.

53:39And I remade it with Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter and John Goodman. It was called Always. And it's a film that's, thank you. Because I love the movie. I really do. And every couple of years, I'll take a look at part of it, not all, but it was Audrey Hepburn's very last film. The last film she ever did. And she played a part in it. And that's a film that I hope someday can get rediscovered.

54:06Sean Fennessey:I was hoping you would say that because I think that is one that is probably the most overlooked. And it feels like a film made by a much older person than you were at that time. Like, where did the feeling to make that come from? I don't know, but it was a film that I used to show girlfriends because if they didn't cry at the end, I wouldn't go out with them again.

54:28That and Two for the Road by Stanley Donnan.

54:33Sean Fennessey:Your career and your legacy, I think, in part is built on this idea of people coming together and experiencing your movies in large groups. and a lot of what I talk about on the show all the time is about the primacy and necessity of movie going and how important it is and what it means and you know it's been under a state of threat over the last 15 years it's been a complicated time like I'd like to just hear you talk about that where you think it is right now how we're doing well it's it's it's an important it's an important topic to talk about because and I look out at at it at this auditorium with everybody here.

55:13And I just think that we're all together. We don't know each other. And we probably agree with each other more than we disagree with each other. We don't know that. But the one thing I know is when we're all watching something, it is going to hit us all independently, individually in different ways. But there is a collective impulse from a good story that hits all of us at the same time in exactly the same way. And there is something there that is about, for me, community and communication and getting along with each other. And that happens in full movie theaters, not sitting around living rooms, watching on television something that is up there on the screen to watch.

56:02And I don't decry those films. I mean, we have a deal. We make Netflix movies, and I like working at Netflix. They're a great company to work with. But it's just, for me, the real experience comes when we can influence a community to congregate in a strange, dark space. All of us are strangers. And at the end of a really good movie experience, we are all united with a whole bunch of feelings that we walk into the daylight with or into the nighttime with. And there's nothing like that. I mean, it happens in movies. You know, it happens at concerts. And it happens in ballet and opera, by the way.

56:59And we want to keep that alive. And we want that to be sustained. And we want that to go forever. And that's why theaters like IMAX are committed to audiences. You have committed to them and they have committed to you. And that is a marriage made in heaven. And other theaters are also just as powerful that have really good projection, really good sound and really clean floors.

57:28Sean Fennessey:I mean, I ask this somewhat out of self-preservation, but in addition to that, like what else can be done? You know, what else can be done to properly put that at the center of the experience as someone who is still making movies for that experience? Well, there's nothing that I can do except try to make compelling movies that people want to go outside the house to see. Because it's an effort today because with the invention of the iPhone, it created a tremendous portable convenience. And when media became portable like that, it is going to get people focused on smaller devices. And so it's going to take a bigger idea, a bigger concept, or a lot of really good, healthy word of mouth to get people to go out to the movies, which is what I'm always advocating.

58:21So all I can do with my company, Amblin, and with my parent company, Universal Comcast, is to make the kind of movies that you would like to go out to see. And then are patient enough to see it first then. And then when it comes on SVOD, then you see it there or you see it when it comes on the streaming services.

58:42Sean Fennessey:There's a film that's nominated for Best Picture this year called The Secret Agent. And Jaws plays a very big part in that film. And then the idea of going to the movies is a big part of that movie. And I was talking to a couple of people who know you, and they said that you're still very current on movies, that you still watch a lot of contemporary films. I was wondering, like, is that true? And how do you see films? I've seen every nominated film and every short, every documentary short, every live actor short, every animation short. And I see it all, not just because I should see, we should see Academy voters all the film before we vote, because, but it's kind of a rush to see them all because I kind of cram, especially when I'm right in the middle of post-production on my movies, so I don't have a lot of time, but my wife loves movies and my kids love movies and we have a lot of communal viewing.

59:35And, and yeah, I just think it's, it's, I see everything I possibly can see. And I, I'm, I hang out with a lot of movie lovers. I hang out with a real sort of movie club of aficionados who have seen movies that I haven't yet seen. But all of them still see every film being made in the contemporary vernacular. They still watch the contemporary films. Not just the rare gemstone movies. They watch all the films.

1:00:08Sean Fennessey:So you mentioned that Close Encounters will soon be 50. And this year, AI turns 25. and those are the the two movies that you have sole screenwriting credit on even though i know ai did not originate with you and you have a story credit on disclosure day and so now one we have these every 25 years i don't know if that kind of that mark struck you that you come back to this space every 25 years so weird i did never thought about that i never considered that that's wicked weird why um don't know why it's just i guess it's the way you're look, it's probably the way the dice have rolled in my life.

1:00:51But whether I write on something or I'm supervising the writing of something, I'm very integrated with the writing process and everything I do. I often, there's been other movies I've made where I could have shared a credit, which I prefer not to, because I think it's important for the person that originates the story. And the reason I didn't share credit with David Koepp is David went off. I wrote a 50 page story in 2023 for Disclosure Day. It was very detailed. But David went out and wrote just the greatest screenplay. And I said, I got my fingerprints on the story. I'm happy with that. This is David's script.

1:01:34Sean Fennessey:I have to ask you about AI. I'm curious how you feel, what part it can play in the filmmaking process at this point. What part can AI play in the filmmaking process, if any at all? Of which movie? Of this movie? No, in any movie. What AI could do in a movie. I've never used AI on any of my films yet. I haven't. I mean, even when we do television, we have a writer's room and all the seats are occupied. There's not an empty chair with a laptop in front of it. So I haven't used AI that way. I don't want to go into a whole rant about AI because I am for AI in many different disciplines. I am not for AI if it replaces a creative individual.

1:02:26Thank you.

1:02:27Sean Fennessey:This is a goofy question, but go with me. In the event that alien life actually comes to our planet. Whose question is this? This is from me. Okay, okay. I'm the goof. The aliens would like to see a visual record of human creativity. Which film of yours are you sharing with them? Of my films? How about one of yours and one that is not yours? If an alien wanted to see one of my films? Yeah.

1:02:59Can't you guess what that film would be? It would be E.T.

1:03:08but but one of the films that i would if if somebody came down to say show me the film that represents um the the kindness of the human race and all of the um i guess you would call it the just the basic intuitive good in people, even when you go off the rails, but you get back on, you're rescued, you come back onto the rails again, I would say, well, I'm going to show you It's a Wonderful Life by Frank Capra. Yeah, right.

1:03:52Which is the kindest film I've ever seen.

1:03:55Sean Fennessey:I try to get filmmakers to tell me what their next film is going to be. it sounds like you're not going to tell me that. You're not going to tell me your next film? You won't share with us what you're going to do next? Well, I'm developing a Western. Okay. And it's going to have horses. And there will be guns. But there'll be no tropes. I can just tell you that. There are going to be no stereotypes, no tropes. Okay. No tropes. Steven Spielberg, we end every episode of this show by asking filmmakers, what is the last great thing they have seen? Have you seen anything great recently? The last great thing I've seen?

1:04:37You mean films we've all seen or films that just...

1:04:41Sean Fennessey:It could be anything. Damien Chazelle once said the Roman Coliseum, which is not a film. But you could, hopefully you'll say a film. I think the last great thing I've seen, not a film, but the last great thing I've seen.

1:04:59I am not allowed to say this. I just remembered if I say this, I'm going to get, my wife's going to kill me. Oh my God. So what's the second greatest thing? What's the second greatest thing I've seen? Come on. Oh my God. What's the second greatest thing I've seen? Oh no. I think the second greatest thing I've seen.

1:05:25Sean Fennessey:or heard. No one's ever done that before. The second greatest thing I've heard was Universal Studios' reaction to my new movie Disclosure Day. That is a very elegant segue. Please give it up for Steven Spielberg. Thank you. Thank you. You're all great.

1:05:51Sean Fennessey:Thank you to Steven Spielberg. Thank you to everyone at South by Southwest for welcoming the big picture to the festival. Thank you to Universal and everyone at Amblin and on Steven's team for their help on this event. Thanks to our producer Jack Sanders for his work on this episode and for making the journey with me to Austin. Thanks to Lucas Cavanaugh for production support. We'll be back on Thursday with the 1988 movie draft with a special guest. We'll see you then. Thank you.