OLD SPIELBERG NEWS

May 31st, 1999 (Memorial Day)

        Hey people.... It's me again. There is some new stuff to tell you & show you. So here we go:

    Back to the Future continuations?

        I recently heard some information that they (who is they?... I don't know) are planning on making maybe a 4th & 5th edition to the Back to the Future saga. These are just rumors that were posted at the BTTF Fan Club site. Nothing is in production. No one is signed on. All I can say, if this is made, WHICH I DOUBT, the only way I'll accept it is if Spielberg produces, Zemeckis directs it, & Michael J. Fox & Christopher Lloyd sign on to do it... Which I also doubt.... Lets keep our fingers crossed

    Minority Report = AI???

        Some more rumors I heard were that Spielberg was planning on mixing MR with some other thing called AI also set in the future or completely nixing MR.. I have no idea where these rumors came from, but all I can say is they are not true. The actual man who is penning the script for Spielberg, whose name escapes me, said himself that the rumors are totally unfounded, & Spielberg is definitely making Minority Report. So we can all rest at ease with that one.

   Spielberg on cover of LIFE

        Well, Spielberg was on the cover of LIFE this weekend with his dad. It was a whole article on him & his dad, & luckily for you, I got the magazine, & with my new scanner, scanned it for you to read it at your own disclosure. SO, click on the cover below to take a bigger look at the cover, & follow the links from there to read the article.

May 22nd, 1999 (3 days after Star Wars)

        Hey guys, here I am again... A surprise to you of course, cause you thought I wouldn't probably update til next month, but something exciting happened, & someone sent me some news, & you know people make the news, so send me some.. Anyways, in one week, I had 2 bomb threats at my school, I skipped school & saw The Phantom Menace, & I got some Spielberg news amazingly. So, here we go:

    Bomb Threats

        Well, I go to a school somewhere in the United States, & sometime after the Littleton shooting, my school & students became paranoid. One student constantly came to class with a trenchcoat, & there were rumors that he was gonna blow up the school. Well, May 17th was the big day, I came to school anyways, & to my GREAT surprise (sarcasm), about half of the students didn't show up...So, that was cool. No bomb ever came. However, there were rumors that the bomber wanted to  see Star Wars first so he would postpone the bombing til May 20th... yesterday. So, there I was sitting with first hour about to end, when the principal came on the speaker and told everyone to evacuate. We did, we were out there in the sun for about 30 minutes when we were called back to class finally. During these 30 minutes, kids hopped over fences to skip, then the adminstrators didn't want any kids to get hurt, & the cops didn't care so they opened the gates, & a flood of hundreds of students just left, & went home. Except me though, cause I live too far, & I didn't have a ride. So, I go to my 2nd hour, & the teachers say go back to 1st hour... All the way to portable 22! As soon as I get there, the principal gets on the intercom & says....OK, you can go to your 2nd hour.   I was like DAMN! I spent all my time to get there, now I gotta go back. But, I came back to a welcome surprise.... What I hadn't known, was that all these kids weren't just leaving from where I was, this was a phenomenon going all around the school. So, in my 2nd hour there were about 7 people. We sat around & watched a pirated version of The Matrix on the computer... SO, that was cool. Then, I went to my 3rd hour where we did nothing but watch Scream 2. That was cool also. Then I went to lunch where thank god I had One friend. That was fun.. I go to my 4th hour-Biology. I was the first person there, & only 3 other people came in. There were 4 kids in my class. It as amazing... Then at the end I finally found out what happened. Earlier in the day, some girl had called in from her house to the school, & made a bomb threat... From her house! How stupid is that.... They caught her right away... What I couldn't believe either was that it was a girl. That shocked me. But, overall, it was a cool day...Hardly did any work, & had fun. I didn't have to walk home either.. I got a ride. I think we should have more bomb threats like this? What do you think?

   Phantom Menace experience (No Spoilers, Don't worry, I don't spoil ever, I won't even give gist of story for PM)

        Wednesday night my friend called me, & told me he planned to skip school with my other friend on Thursday to go see Star Wars, but I wasn't sure I could cause my mom never lets me miss school. But, I asked her & to my surprise once again, she let me stay home. But that wasn't even the big question! I stayed home, but the big question was whether or not there would even be Star Wars tickets available.We planned to go at 1:30 pm, also though I didn't even know if I had a ride to the movie theater. But thank god my 23 year old brother's best friend wanted to go see it & he was home. So,   he took me there, & we all met up... There were plenty of tickets available, & we grabbed good seats. There were trailers for The Beach w/ Leonardo DiCaprio, Titan AE, Inspector Gadget, The General, & some Tibetan movie. I'm sitting there with everyone, just waiting. Then finally it came one with the scroll, & the film was awesome.... It's visual effects were awesome. The best I have ever seen in a film. So realistic, & lifelike. I liked the story, & the film was very exciting. I'm not asking you, I'm not telling you, I'm just saying... YOU WILL SEE EPISODE I THIS WEEKEND. There is no doubt about it. You will. That's it.

    Spielberg on CNN (This was sent in by a Spielberg fan.)

     Spielberg will be profiled next Tuesday on CNN's NewsStand series PEOPLE PROFILES. It airs at 8 p.m. ET and 5 p.m. PT, with a repeat at 1 a.m. ET and 10 p.m. PT.

    It's a one hour, in-depth profile including interviews with Spielberg himself, his parents, Arnold Spielberg and Leah Adler, Richard Dreyfuss and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

   Following are some excerpts:

    Spielberg on His Early Family Life:

"My mom and my dad gave me a free reign at expressing myself, up to and including torturing all of my sisters, you know, to the point that I did getin trouble for that. But...I was just trying to find something to do with myself. I didn't quite know how to express it. And I used to express it by telling scary stories to my younger sisters. And they were my first audience." "The movie camera gave me kind of a tool that I could start to, you know, apply some of this more sadistic behavior into something that was a little bit more entertaining." 

    Leah Adler remembers how he cut off the head of one of his sister's dolls and served it on a platter with lettuce and tomatoes:

"He cut off the doll's head of Nancy's and served it to her one night. On a platter, this doll's head on a bed of lettuce. In an array of sliced tomatoes and here's...Chatty Kathy.

     Richard Dreyfuss remembers the challenges of shooting Jaws:

"You'd hear all over the island [Chappaquidick] 'The shark is not working, the shark is not working!' and one day 'The shark is working! The boat is sinking!' We started sinking off the coast. Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, myself. But that's, the shark worked that day!"

    Jeffrey Katzenberg remembers Kate Capshaw's requirements before committing Steven to DreamWorks:

She turned to me and she said, 'So here are my ground rules, assuming that everything else can get worked out in this, you can have him after he takes the kids to school and you deliver him back here to have dinner with them at
night.'"

    Spielberg on E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial:

"My first serious film was E.T., easy to say it's a kid's confection, but for me it was my first serious film."

    Spielberg on Schindler's List:

"Schindler's List changed my life completely, my professional life completely, and certainly in many regards altered me completely because, you know, it made me belive in something that wasn't a guess about outer space or wasn't about where most of my films have come from, which is my imagination."

    Spielberg on His Kids:

"I think the most important thing that I've gotten from, you know, from the attention to my films and I guess to myself, through my films, is the fact that my kids respect me. And they're proud of me. And they talk to me about it. And they include me in their lives."

End Note

    OK.... That's it for This weeks news, if anything exciting happens again, I'll be sure to let you know. I not only use this site as an outlet for Spielberg & movie news, but also any interesting stories that may have happened to me like this week. I like to get things off my chest. It's been REAL. ADIOS.

May 15th, 1999 (The day I came back)

        Well folks, Good ol' Steve is back from his little crusade of straight A's in school. Here is a scan.(It was my birthday recently & lucky for you I got a scanner.) Click to make BIGGER.

Here is some long awaited Spielberg news:

Minority Report Info:  

   Dark Horizons received a review for the script Minority Report--- Spielberg's next movie with Tom Cruise coming out June 30th, 2000. If you want to read it click here..... Warning though..... It contains SPOILERS. I haven't even read it because I don't like movies to be spoiled, therefore if you do want to be spoiled click here> Script Review: "Minority Report"           It's also very negative I hear. But dont panic. SPR was also received as not that good of a script until Spielberg did some thinkering that made it the masterpiece it is. I'm sure Spielberg will do the same with Minority Report.

Other info:

Here is an article that appeared at MrShowBiz.com about  Julia Roberts & her problem with Mr. Spielberg. I still like her though:

    'Roberts Says Spielberg's a 'Turncoat'

This should teach Steven Spielberg to stick Julia Roberts in the world's single-most horrific wig ever.

In the new issue of Vanity Fair, Roberts deems Spielberg a "turncoat" for implicitly confirming the rumors that she was difficult to work with on the set of 1991's Hook, in which Roberts — wearing a wig best described as straw — played Tinkerbell to Robin Williams' Peter Pan.

She remembers watching Spielberg say, "It was an unfortunate time for us to work together," during an interview on 60 Minutes.

"I saw that and my eyes popped out of my head," Roberts says. "I couldn't believe that this person that I knew and trusted was actually hesitating to come to my defense. It was the first time that I felt I had a turncoat in my midst."

Spielberg's representative Marvin Levy stands by the director's comment. "It was just a tough time in her life," he says, mentioning that Hook coincided with Roberts' breakup with fiancé Kiefer Sutherland. "Fortunately, she went on to great success, and so did Steven."

Roberts also discussed her role in the new Notting Hill, in which she plays a famous actress who falls in love with an average Joe, personified by the not-so-average Hugh Grant.

"I was struggling with playing a person who really only shares an occupation and a height and a weight and a status with me," she says. Oh, is that all?

All in all, Roberts is quite content with her fame. "I live a privileged life — hugely privileged. It would be absurd to pretend that it's anything different."

How privileged is "hugely"? Well, the June issue of Premiere had Julia as No. 33 on the magazine's "Power List." At $20 million-per-picture, Roberts was in front of fellow film actresses Jodie Foster (No. 43), Meg Ryan (56), Sandra Bullock (76), Gwyneth Paltrow (86 — see, Gwynnie, it takes more than just an Oscar), and Cameron Diaz (87).

Roberts is also worth every penny, able to attract viewers in theaters and living rooms alike. Case in point: Her recent guest appearance on boyfriend Benjamin Bratt's television drama Law & Order earned the show its highest ratings of the season and helped NBC win May 5's battle of the networks, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Raved Entertainment Weekly of Roberts' performance as a scheming corporate seductress: "Playing a highly competent and put-together operator who turns out to be not a little demented, [Roberts] easily grasped the character, and little by little let a neat and refined facade give way to a kind of dangerous madness." 'Course, Weekly then says that Roberts is at the top of her form 'cause she's happily in love. Sheesh — who over there has been listening to Celine Dion's "Because You Loved Me" a little too often?

    So, I know what you're thinking... She's a Bi***!! How can she go against the master... Frankly I don't care. There were problems on the set, but... Oh, well. I still like her as an actress. She's pretty cool. So, don't go on hating her.k?

That's pretty much it folks!! So, I'm sorry. I'll try to get some more info, but it's a dry period. It's gonna be summer soon, & the focus is on that. Spielberg is taking a little rest right now, & he'll be on track shooting Minority Report this November. So, sit tight. Also, I'll be in Michigan for the summer, and I don't think I'll have access to a computer which means no access to this site, which means no update... You might have to wait till Late August after June.....SORRY>>>>>>>ADIOS.

April 9th, 1999

    Last Sunday, I went & saw a film that gave me the best movie expierience of 1999... That FILM was a motion picture titled... . I loved this movie so much.... It's awesome!! I can't explain the high I felt after seeing this... I was gushing in excitement. The film rules!! Keanu Reeves as NEO is awesome. That one girl as Trinity (I love that name) is awesome.... And Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus is cool as well... Gotta love it.  It is truely the best film so far of 1999. I'd give a review.... An over view of the film or whatever but... Unfortunately, nobody can be told what the Matrix is...You'll have to see it for your self. Remember... No matter what you hear.... Human Beings are not a disease.

    In other news (There is no Spielberg news), James Cameron is dropping making his beloved Spider-Man movie.. For what reason?? I Don't know, & I could care less. There are no real good movies coming out til may 19th, so we'll just have to sit tight. In case you were wondering what movie comes out May 19th... You'd have to have been in the matrix. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace opens.... Exciting huh?....eh....yeah.

    Anyway, See the Matrix... Sit tight....& live life.....Happy Trails.

                                                                                                                                            ADIOS,

                                                                                                                                                    Mr. Force 

April 2nd, 1999

   Apparently a story from Showbiz.com has been circulating that Spielberg & Lucas are teaming up to make a remake of A Clockwork Orange to pay tribute to the late Stanley Kubrick... Let me make it clear to everyone that this article was just an April Fool's Joke. Though, this may take the fun out of it.... I want you to know that it's all made up.... & For all those Spielberg, Sci-Fi, & Cruise fans..... Minority Report is still scheduled to be filmed later this year.. Here is the link to the article>> Spielberg, Lucas Join Forces for Clockwork Remake

March 31st, 1999

    OK.. Some quick stuff then on to the Time Article...

    First off, Please e-mail me at steveskg@hotmail.com about the Monopoly Game from McDonalds that I wrote about on the Contents Page.... We can win!!

   Also, check out my other site about my ongoing debate with myself about something.... Check it out> A Homepage

Now for the time article titled "Private Spielberg"- In the article, it basically explains DreamWorks position at the current moment financially, & other aspects of the studio that has semi-succeeded or failed.... Here it is:

       Private Spielberg

The Much Lauded co-founder of DreamWorks may be looking to do more work of his own

   The script wasn't supposed to be this way. On Oscar night the DreamWorks team of David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg, & Steven Spielberg was hoping-probably expecting- to hear Spielberg's film, Saving Private Ryan, named Best Picture. Certainly, the glittering assemblage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was shocked. When Shakespeare in Love was announced, there was an audible gasp.

    Which makes it a bit more awkward for DreamWorks to spin the news that Spielberg, & his 2 executives, the married couple of Walter Parkes & Laurie Mac Donald, are balking at taking on the expanded film production that DreamWorks feels it's Live-Action Studio needs in order to thrive. DreamWorks which released six films in 1998, wants at least double that output. But Spielberg & his partners will restrict themselves to overseeing no more than have a dozen films a year. Spielberg also will revive his previously dormant production company banner, Amblin, for some films. His financial stake in DreamWorks apparently remains unchanged.

    While Spielberg associates affirm that he is as devoted as ever to the ambitious effort to launch the first new studio in decades, most industry professionals will conclude that the famed filmmaker- by far DreamWorks' most valuable asset- is growing weary. The resurrection of the Amblin label, in their view, could signal an escape vehicle in case the need arises. (The Amblin logo, which last appeared on Zorro, has until now been attached only to non-DreamWorks projects that were in the works before the new company was born.)

    But Spielberg's colleagues say he simply doesn't want to run a full-fledged film division cranking out a dozen or more movies a year. "We've been fairly vocal in saying that there's only a certain extent to which we can change our stripes & become pure executives," Parkes says. "We're happier focusing on a smaller number of pictures." (Spielberg declines to comment.)

    This change was planned before the Oscar disappointment, but certainly DreamWorks would have preferred to make the announcement while flush with triumph. Parkes, however, insists DreamWorks is triumphant enough after a strong year at the box-office, with hits including Deep Impact, and Saving Private Ryan. The company also scored nicely with Antz, it's first animated film. And though Katzenberg did not have the giant smash he yearned for with the Prince of Egypt, the picture will gross $100 million in the U.S.

    DreamWorks principals say they need to increase production to compete with other studios, which typically release 15 to 20 films a year. They can either make more deals with outside producers or, more likely, hire a high-powered executive to run the live-action division alongside Spielberg's operation. An open question is how involved Katzenberg-who spent 10 years as head of the Disney studio but fared poorly in live-action-will be in building slate. Until now, the area had primarily been Spielberg's domain, while Katzenberg focused on animation and television.

    There are reports inside and outside the company that the 4 year old DreamWorks in the midst of a broader re-evaluation of it's future and that bigger changes may be afoot. Many industry professionals have long assumed that eventually DreamWorks would combine with Universal- a studio that has been engulfed in management turmoil. The combination might make sense: DreamWorks' animation department could make a nice fit with Universal's theme park operations.

    Another rumor has Sony as a potential DreamWorks partner. Certainly Sony chief John Calley and Spielberg have bonded personally: Calley is advising the director as he mulls over buying a yacht. But as Calley says no corporate conversations are under way.

    Geffen says DreamWorks has many suitors, but he maintains that "no merger conversations are going on." For now, he says, the only issue is that "we needed to ramp up production beyond 6 films a year." Most major studios have hundreds of scripts in development t any time, Geffen points out, but DreamWorks is so new that it doesn't have that kind of inventory. The company also lacks a movie-and-TV library that could throw off cash. And with so few releases a year, it's tough to build distribution muscle with theaters.

    The broader question is whether Dreamworks is a dream that can work. The company has met with mixed results since it's splashy launch. It has performed strongly in film, but most of it's hits (Including Deep Impact and Saving Private Ryan) have been joint ventures with other studios, which came up with the scripts. In television, DreamWorks has had some expensive failures (Ted Danson's Ink, for example) and only one solid hit: Spin City. In music, it has yet to strike gold, George Michael's DreamWorks debut was a disappointment. Newer acts on the label such as Eels, Rufus Wainright & Elliot Smith, have received strong reviews and, so far, have been non-starters on the Billboard charts. Geffen says financial success in music will follow the critics' cheers. "That's how you begin an artist's career," he says.

    Still, anyone with a pencil & a napkin can calculate that a lot more money has poured out of DreamWorks than has flowed in. It's what you'd expect with a start-up, but as long as that's so, speculation will continue as to whether the company can exist in it's present configuration. An insider at DreamWorks says change seems to be in the air. "At this point, the shoe hasn't dropped," the executive says, "but there is a shoe."

    That's it for now!! I'm gonna go see The Matrix sometime soon..... You should too..... It looks really cool. ADIOS.

March 22nd, 1999 (A Day That'll Live in Infamy!!... The Day after Oscar's Biggest Travesty)

    Last night, the first words that came to my mind were... TRAVESTY... ROBBED...B**TCH!!!!!!

    Last night at the Academy Awards, Saving Private Ryan walked off with LESS than deserved... In MY opinion, I believe it should've walked off with at least 6 & maybe 7 awards...

    Here is a run down of the Awards it did win, & Should've won but Lost... Red indicating Win, Blue indicating Loss:

Best Picture- Shakespeare in Love

Best Director- Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan)

Best Cinematography- Jansuz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan)

Best Editing- Michael Kahn (SPR)

Best Sound- Saving Private Ryan

Best Sound Effects Editing- Saving Private Ryan

Best Makeup- Elizabeth (For the Wade scene alone, SPR should've won)

        Saving Private Ryan should have won, but the Academy has it in for Spielberg.... In 1985, when Spielberg won the DGA Award, he wasn't even nominated that year for the Color Purple, & that movie got 11 nominations, & didn't win a single one... The DGA has been wrong only 4 out 51 times about the director who goes on to win the Oscar, as shown at the Oscars this year, but still yet, the Industry managed to spit in Spielberg's face by Giving him Best Director, yet taking away Best Picture. In my eyes, this is a bigger controversy than Eli Kazzan... Just like Bill Maher, the thing that came to my mind when Shakespeare in Love was announced, was the Holyfield VS. Lewis fight... I felt Lewis was robbed... Just like Saving Private Ryan... They were ROBBED!!!!!! I can definitely understand why Spielberg wouldn't give a post-Oscar interview. I wouldn't give one, after being given a slap in the face. This hasn't happened since 9 years ago, when Oliver Stone won Best Director for Born on the Fourth of July, but Driving Miss Daisy won that year. Every year after that, including Schindler's List, the Best Director's film, also won Best Picture. I can not fathom how it happened...

 January 31, 1999 (Super Bowl Sunday, & my return from nowhere)

       Well, it's been almost a month & a half since I have updated this site. Yet, I have been fathomed by the amount of visitors I have gotten for a site that hasn't updated since last year, technically. So, I must thank you for the continues support, & your e-mails telling me what you think of the site.... HAPPY SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!! By the way Happy New Year, too.

    Now, I've missed on updating alot of info, so I'll just try to update you as best as possible... Here we go:

    Spielberg is setting to direct Minority Report beginning in September of 1999. Then move on to Geisha in 2000, he apparently delayed it because he felt if it was released this year, it would get lost amongst the chaos of the new millenium. To support that theory, here is a little report:

   Spielberg Debunks ‘Geisha’ Demise
            Steven Spielberg has chosen to address rumors that suggest the director will never get around to making the film version of Arthur Golden’s book Memoirs of a Geisha. According to the Hollywood Reporter, when asked if he would ever make the film, Spielberg answered with a resounding "yes." Spielberg then revealed, "It's always been going ahead. I don't think people understand why I postponed it a year; I've never declared a film and then put it off (like this). I simply will repeat that I'm nervous that the millennium and the end of 1999 will have a lot of events -- not just motion picture events but global happenings. I was worried that a lovely, small Asian story was going to get lost in the revelry. I persuaded Columbia to let me delay it a year, and they were gracious to say yes." Hmmm, I’m not sure if this sounds like Y2K anxiety, the millennium-ending competition or that he just realized how busy he would be working on other projects, like Minority Report, for example. Spielberg also added , in his opinion, that the Ron Bass’ script for Geisha was one of the scribe’s best.  END

     Now, here is some info on Indy 4, or what was thought to be Indiana Jones & the Sword of Authur, but as it turns out, Cinescape has proven it to be a hoax as again. So, forget that idea. If you want anymore info on that, check out Harry's Aint-It-Cool-News site. They are sure to have something there on it.

    The 56th Annual Golden Globe Awards were held last Sunday, & Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan nabbed 2 out of it's 5 nominations. It of course won for Best Director for Mr. Steven Spielberg., & also of course won for Best Motion Picture-Drama going to Saving Private Ryan, which Spielberg also won for producing it. One miniature surprise I found, that I wasn't too happy about was, that the Truman Show's Jim Carrey beat out SPR's Tom Hanks for top acting honors... I thought that sucked. It also lost Best Score to The Truman Show, & Best Screenplay to Shakespeare in Love. But, at least we got in my opinion the top 2 awards of Director & Film. Spielberg was also recently nominated for Best Director by the DGA or Directors Guild of America.

    To end it all, I would just like to say the Academy Award Nominations will be out February 9th at 8:30 A.M.-Eastern Time, I stress Eastern time. If you're in the Pacific, of course deduct 3 hours, & that would be 5:30 A.M.-Pacific Time, or whatever the time difference is. It should be broadcast on E!, so check your local listings.

    By the way, I saw A Civil Action, & At First Sight. I know this has nothing to do with Spielberg. However, I would just like to say that At First Sight was OK. It felt a little contrived, & the directing not very original. It followed all the usual cliches this type of movie entails... Not worth the ticket, but maybe worth the rental. 2 stars.

    A Civil Action, was much classier than At First Sight. It began extremely well, it was told extremely well, but I'm afraid even though it was a true story, the climax just didn't do it for me. It was an anti-climax. You feel, you're set up for an amazing court room ending, but you're left hanging. Almost like, the feeling you had at the end of the Truman Show, how it just ended like that. It didn't feel over. That's my one complaint. So, I give it 3 stars out of 4. Maybe, 3 1/2.

    That's it for now, so if you really want this thing to be updated soon... Please, e-mail me with your support, it's what keeps me going. So, I would just like to thank you for reading all this, & I'll see ya... ADIOS.

December 18, 1998 (Happy 52nd birthday Steven Spielberg!!)

    Today, we celebrate one of the most important events in the history of cinema... The birth of Steven Spielberg in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 18th, 1946. The worlds most famous director has directed the hits such as Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, & the rest of the Indy films. Also, he has directed ET,  The Color Purple, Jurassic Park, it's sequel, & one of the 100 greatest films of all time... Schindler's List.... His latest film Saving Private Ryan is being held in the same contention, & just got nominated for 5 Golden Globe Awards including Best Drama, Best Director (Spielberg), & Best Actor in a drama (Tom Hanks).

    In other "Spielbergized"news, DreamWorks & Fox are officially teaming up to make Minority Report with Tom Cruise directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is a sci-fi about I don't know what, & the title doesn't suggest much but the film is gonna be awesome, & I can't wait.  It's begins shooting Next year...... ADIOS til the next update.......  

November 7 , 1998

        Sorry folks for the mistake on Deep Impact. It is not out for sale, just for rental. However, it will be out on DVD by Christmas (More accurately, December 15th). The Lost World with new added scenes was shown last Sunday, & it won the night with 17 million viewers.

    I will update some more soon, but I don't really feel like typing. So wait a little while longer.

    By the way, while in Australia, George Lucas said the Indy 4 script is done. Also, when asked who will direct the 2nd & 3rd prequels, he replied "probable me", so any  hopes of Spielberg directing episode 2 is not likely for now. Who knows what will happen. Have fun.

October 18, 1998

Since I haven't updated in a while, here is some Spielberg news. Deep Impact is out for sale on October 27, & Amistad comes out November 10th. I'm buying both as soon as they come out. Both are awesome.

    Spielberg is re-teaming with Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, & Contact director Robert Zemeckis for a new movie with Harrison Ford. The film is called "What Lies Beneath" The film will be a joint venture between DreamWorks & Paramount once again. This tidbit came from Variety. There is also info for the new Zemeckis & Hanks film... "The Castaway"

    Pairing for Zemeckis
Twentieth Century Fox and DreamWorks are ironing out a deal in which the studios would split distribution rights for director Robert Zemeckis’ next two films, one starring Tom Hanks and the other starring Harrison Ford. While neither would comment on the deal, sources at both studios confirmed the talks and the potential star-studded split-rights scenario. Under the pact, Fox will handle the domestic release of the Hanks vehicle 'The Castaway,' and DreamWorks will handle its foreign distribution. Then, in a reversal of that arrangement, DreamWorks will handle domestic and Fox will take foreign on the Ford
starrer 'What Lies Beneath.' Both films are to be helmed by Robert Zemeckis, and produced by Image Movers, Zemeckis’ production partnership with Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey. Hanks may also serve as a producer on Castaway,' although that is not clear at this time. The studios will evenly split production costs as well as the overall, worldwide box office pot for both films.

    The domestic distribution was decided along development lines: Fox has developed 'The Castaway,' a film scripted by William Broyles ('Apollo 13'), for several years under a deal the studio once had with Hanks; and the Clark Gregg-scripted 'What Lies Beneath' was developed by DreamWorks from an idea by company co-founder Steven Spielberg. Zemeckis will be doing more than splitting studios, as previously reported, he also will be dividing production time between the two films. Beginning in early 1999, Zemeckis will shoot Hanks in 'Castaway' (a contemporary tale of a man stranded on a deserted island and his efforts to stay alive) until midspring, when production will be halted so Hanks can work on losing pounds to replicate the effects of being stranded. Hanks also is expected to lense Warner Bros.’ 'Dino' during the
break. During the hiatus, Zemeckis will move over to direct Ford in 'What Lies Beneath,' the supernatural drama, which is slated to start production in September. Once Hanks loses the weight, and Zemeckis completes 'What Lies Beneath,' the duo will return to complete
'Castaway.'

    Memoirs of a Giesha added another cast member 
      'Maggie Cheung' is set to play the mentor of Nitta Sayuri (Geisha).

In the works is a Twister sequel. Hollywood reports say that a sequel is be made in mind for the hugely successful film. The script calls for the original actors to reprise their roles. It's a script based on Micharl Chricton's work.
 

September 18, 1998

   I know... I know... I know. I haven't updated this page since August 27th... I know I promised a "BIG" update since I was gone over the summer, but I got caught up in school stuff. I didn't have much motivation. The Saving Private Ryan news was pretty much over. I had nothing to write about. But now I'm back on track. I want to make this site really good. Right now it's got a lot of stuff, has some consistencey but it's not like Jawad's or Thew's. I'm striving for that kind of excellence. I want to get into a mold of just being able to update the news, upload pics, add links, & anything else I have to do without having to make real cosmetic changes. If I do that, I will be able to update this site faster, better, & most important... more often. So please, now that you know what I want to do, all I ask is bare with me. It might start off slow, but in no time, these couple of html documents looming around in cyber-space will turn into a top-notch full-fledged site. Anyways, on with the news....
 

   Box-Office killing in England

   In England, Saving Private Ryan is breaking records,& it's ticket sales are close
to surpassing Titanic... in England that is. Here is some info on that, thanks to
Jawad's site.

Saving Private Ryan set to be a sell-out Sales of tickets for Steven Spielberg's epic
depiction of the D-day landings which opens across the UK on Friday have
reached unprecedented" levels. Tens of thousands of cinema-goers are expected
to flock to see Saving Private Ryan - already being described as one of the
greatest films of all time. By Friday morning UCI Cinemas, which has 34
multi-screen complexes throughout the UK, had sold 20,000 tickets - 75% of those
available. Beating Titanic A UCI spokesman said 75% for the morning of a release
was very high considering most tickets are bought in the lunch hour or the
afternoon. He added: "Titanic was the last film to compete like this and at the
moment Saving Private Ryan is just beating it. "From tonight onwards sales
depend on word of mouth as to how good people think the film is." Ian Frier, a
senior writer at film magazine Empire, described such high pre-booking sales as
"unprecedented". He said: "It will make a lot of money, it has been out in the
United States for 6 weeks and has taken £160m which considering it is a serious
adult film is an incredible gross. "In the UK it has been granted a 15 certificate
because of its historic nature but on content it should have been an 18. Veterans
left shocked "But for a film out of the children's market, sales of 75% on the
morning of release are unprecedented." The war movie, starring Tom Hanks, has
already been hailed for its authentic portrayal of the chaos and carnage of front
line battle. The epic depiction of the Normandy landings has been described as
some of the most harrowing and gruesomely realistic non-documentary war
footage ever shot. The full horror of the D-Day massacre of American troops on
Omaha beach is displayed in graphic detail during the opening scene which was
filmed on hand-held cameras and lasts 25 minutes. When the film opened in the
US, many Normandy veterans were shocked as horrors that had long been buried
were brought back to life on the screen.

August 27, 1998
    Well, here is the BIG update I was talking about. I'll start off by saying... Saving Private Ryan is doing phoenomenal. For 4 straight weeks,  it has been #1 at the box-office. It's first weekend it pulled in an estimated $30.6 million,, 2nd weekend it earned $23.3 million, It's 3rd weekend, it got $17.6 million, & in the 4th week it beat out How Stella Got Her Groove Back with $12.9 million. It's 5th week it pulled in a strong $10.9 million falling 2nd only to the Wesley Snipe's Blade, which earned about $17 million.
    Saving Private Ryan has gotten tons of reviews, 90% of which are extremely positive.
Siskel & Ebert give it "2 Big Thumbs up! Way up!", Entertainment Weekly calls it "a masterpiece. A movie of Staggering Virtuosity, & Raw Lyric Power." However, none of these reviews will ever be able to capture the raw emotions that pour out of the people's eyes when they walk out of the movie theater.
 

Early 1998
   Steven Spielberg has been busy as hell these past 2 years. He has been Directing & Producing a total of 4 films. First off, he returned from a 3 year absence of Directing with The Lost World: Jurassic Park, then going on to Produce & Direct the slave ship epic Amistad. Now, he has Exec. Produced another dramatic action movie called Deep Impact directed by The Peacemaker's Mimi Leder. It's about the US & the rest of the world finding out that a meteor is about to strike Earth, and something needs to be done. It's classic Spielberg, and doesn't deserve to be missed. The film stars Morgan Freeman as President of the United States, an Elijah Wood as a concerned bystander. It's called Deep Impact and it comes out May 8th!!

    However, Spielberg is back on track directing. Coming out this summer is Saving Private Ryan. It's a World War II epic starring Tom Hanks, and Matt Damon about an a nation who has lost 3 of a mothers 4 sons in the war. The mother who is about to receive 3 different telegrams telling her her sons are dead, has one more son still in the war.... Private Ryan. The army, who doesn't want her to lose all her sons, sends out Tom Hanks on a mission to find this Private Ryan. Hence the title, Saving Private Ryan. It should be compelling and heartbreaking. It comes out July 24th!!Go see it!!