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Kim Masters has updated her Slate/"Big Money" piece about the fate of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln project, and she says that "a knowledgable source [informs] that Paramount has passed" on the project.
This is all Spielberg's fault since he's the one who's delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed. A subject of this depth and scope is beyond his abilities and he knows it, which is the deep-down reason why he's been putting it off, I believe. Spielberg has already blown it by not shooting the film in '07 or '08, as releasing a Lincoln biopic right now would be perfect with Obama and the 200th anniversary and all. Later? Not so much.
The best thing that could happen to the Lincoln project would be for Spielberg to walk away and focus on directing and producing CG theme-park movies for the rest of his life -- Indy 4, Tintin, Transformers 2, crap like that.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 18, 2009 at 5:01 PM
comment #1
D.Z.
says ...
Yeah, Oldboy and GITS are out of his league.
Posted by D.Z.
at February 18, 2009 5:29 PM
comment #2
CitizenKanedforChewingGum
says ...
Perhaps he'll circle around and hit it another time, perhaps not. Yeah, it just doesn't seem like he's destined for this project, in a lot of ways. Remember Amistad?
Say what you will about him, but the Beard's had a pretty great decade (I'll concede Indy IV & The Terminal as misfires, but the rest range anywhere from very interesting works to damn masterpieces).
Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum
at February 18, 2009 5:32 PM
comment #3
TheCahuengaKid
says ...
Someone just told Spielberg that both Raymond Massey and Henry Fonda are both dead - and unavailable for the Lincoln role...
Posted by TheCahuengaKid
at February 18, 2009 5:37 PM
comment #4
cinefan
says ...
"A subject of this depth and scope is beyond his abilities"
Yeah, the guy who directed Schindler's List and Munich surely isn't capable of making a film about Lincoln's presidency...
Posted by cinefan
at February 18, 2009 5:53 PM
comment #5
bmcintire
says ...
The Slate piece also states that ". . .if Paramount passes, another studio - including Disney - could step up. Disney's theme park in Orlando, FL features Lincoln in the Hall of Presidents, while the Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln attraction at the original Disneyland hasn't been on display since 2005 but is expected to return."
Posted by bmcintire
at February 18, 2009 5:59 PM
comment #6
DeafBrownTrashPunk
says ...
yeah, what about SCHINDLER'S LIST??????? since Speilberg directed that, he can surely pull off this Lincoln biopic, too.
Posted by DeafBrownTrashPunk
at February 18, 2009 6:00 PM
comment #7
bluetide
says ...
I had the same thought, cinefan. Spielberg has made some garbage commerical flicks in the past decade or two (Lost World, Indy IV) but Schindler's List is still a masterpiece. The first 3/4 of Munich was as sharp as anything he's ever done.
Posted by bluetide
at February 18, 2009 6:03 PM
comment #8
Geoff
says ...
I think Wells is probably right in saying that Spielberg can't handle this material. You guys all saw Amistad, right?
Posted by Geoff
at February 18, 2009 6:57 PM
comment #9
hunterd
says ...
RE:Cinefan
Considering that both Schindler's List and Munich were drivel...yes, it would be a good indicator.
Posted by hunterd
at February 18, 2009 7:02 PM
comment #10
CitizenKanedforChewingGum
says ...
um, care to enlighten us how they were "drivel" instead of just trollin' about?
overrated is one thing, "drivel?" silly hyperbole...
Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum
at February 18, 2009 7:07 PM
comment #11
Calraigh Bracken
says ...
Liam Neeson is giving a public interview at the Dublin Film Festival on Friday and he's going to be drilled about this. Among other things of course. The choice to do Taken , being one.
Posted by Calraigh Bracken
at February 18, 2009 8:27 PM
comment #12
roquentin
says ...
You would think from the volume and intensity of your vitriol towards Spielberg that a) you have an Oedipal hard-on for the man, or b) he had personally stolen your wife and poisoned your children. It's not even kosher for a movie lover/cinephile to dismiss Spielberg out of hand...it's like living in the sixties and saying, "why doesn't Hitchcock just go back to making those silly scary movies?" He's that influential and important a filmmaker. Even if you hate his movies.
Forget that the man made Schindler's List, Munich, and Saving Private Ryan. Forget that those "popcorn" movies he's made have all pretty much set the standard for how pop movies are made (The Dark Knight/insert your favorite post-80s action flick wouldn't exist without him). Take this: Spielberg, as opposed to Scorsese, De Palma, all those Raging Bulls of the 70s, has become MORE invested/political/interesting as he's gotten older.
I get people hating the pining-for-suburbia ethos of a lot of his movies...it's cloying, it gets under my skin. And I was worried after Munich's poor reception that Spielberg would feel the need to reassert his standing as pop maestro...only to falter with...well, drivel like Indy 4. Hell, I wish the man had burrowed deeper into that political mindset...but I'm aware that he wants to please people. If you want to hate the man for that, you might as well throw out every director who ever made a movie. They ALL want to please, especially the ones trying not to.
Your dismissal says much more about you Wells than it does Spielberg or the little naysayers on this talkback.
Posted by roquentin
at February 18, 2009 8:53 PM
comment #13
dogcatcher
says ...
They'll just make it at Disney.
Paramount doesn't own the rights to Abraham Lincoln do they? Did Honest Abe sign an exclusivity contract with Paramount before attending the Ford Theater that fateful night or something? Does Paramount own the exclusive rights to the $5 bill as well?
Speilberg will just make this film at Disney now, his new home.
Brad Grey is honestly the dumbest buisnessman in Hollywood. He lets personality conflicts interfer with buisness decisions and it's costing him. He's lost Dreamworks; he's lost David Fincher; and now he's lost this film as well. All because he needs to control everything and his "talent" rebels against that. Brad Grey's ego is destroying Paramount.
Posted by dogcatcher
at February 18, 2009 9:29 PM
comment #14
hunterd
says ...
Schindler's List is a profoundly antisemitic film. Not only does it whitewash the actions of Oskar Schindler, turning the man into some sort of Christ figure, it infantilizes the Jews, turning them into a massive, monolithic force of lemmings who frankly deserve what they get for being so totally useless.
And Munich? I know, lets make a movie about "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" except, lets make this point by juxtaposing real murder and brutality against fictionalized actions! Hooray for moral relativism.
Explanation enough?
Posted by hunterd
at February 18, 2009 9:32 PM
comment #15
cinefan
says ...
"Not only does it whitewash the actions of Oskar Schindler, turning the man into some sort of Christ figure, it infantilizes the Jews, turning them into a massive, monolithic force of lemmings who frankly deserve what they get for being so totally useless."
How exactly does the film whitewash Schindler? It establishes right at the beginning of the film that he's an adulterer and a sleazy businessman who exploited the Nazis for his own financial gain. Also, you need to provide specific examples from the film to support your "thesis" that the film infantilizes the Jews and is antisemitic. Just going by your post, you seem to be the one who's antisemitic by criticizing them for being "so totally useless."
Posted by cinefan
at February 18, 2009 9:40 PM
comment #16
hunterd
says ...
In the context of the film the Jewish characters are pretty much universally inert. They are children who need to be saved by a real man (insert daddy issues here).
I like some of the movies Spielberg has made. And I deeply respect Saving Private Ryan and consider it amongst the best films ever made, but the man needs to stay the hell away from history. He butchers the facts every time, often for no discernible reason beyond repeating his same old daddy issue shtick. We get it Steve, your parents divorce really hurt you deep down inside...can we have a new topic now?
Posted by hunterd
at February 18, 2009 10:02 PM
comment #17
D.Z.
says ...
roque: TDK wouldn't exist without Spielberg? Yeah, right. More like the Schumacher Batman films. Hell, footage of Rambo was friggin' inserted in one of the movies he produced-Gremlins 2! In fact, Spielberg owes more to Burton and Lynch for his recent "mature" films than, say, Snyder or Greengrass would owe to him.
Posted by D.Z.
at February 19, 2009 2:54 AM
comment #18
bents75
says ...
"... it infantilizes the Jews, turning them into a massive, monolithic force of lemmings who frankly deserve what they get for being so totally useless."
I've seen you drop this line before Hunter, and it was bullshit then, and it's bullshit now. Even if he did "turn" them into a monlithic force of lemmings, which doesn't ring true to me because there's plenty of historical evidence to back up the movies depiction - it's your personal interpretation that they deserve what they get for being so useless, not Speilberg's. You should analyze yourself for a comment like that.
And most people would at least consider the context of Saving Private Ryan to be historical in nature - how are you going to tell him to stay away from the subject and call it one of the best movies ever made in the same paragraph?
Posted by bents75
at February 19, 2009 7:58 AM
comment #19
SaveFarris
says ...
I guess Hollywood just couldn't bring itself to say anything nice about a Republican. Any Republican. Not that surprising, actually.
Posted by SaveFarris
at February 19, 2009 11:00 AM
comment #20
George Prager
says ...
Schindler's List is the Mississippi Burning of Holocaust movies.
Posted by George Prager
at February 19, 2009 11:08 AM
comment #21
CitizenKanedforChewingGum
says ...
George Prager is the Mississippi Burning of film analogies.
Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum
at February 19, 2009 11:51 AM
comment #22
hunterd
says ...
Munich utterly fails morally, and since the movie was a message film, it is fair to judge it based on its morals and I think its morals suck.
As for the claims of antisemitism. I am Jewish myself, and a survivor of several hate crimes as a result of this fact. I know what antisemitism looks like. I've seen it shove a gun barrel in my mouth.
Posted by hunterd
at February 19, 2009 2:39 PM
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