Steven Spielberg’s Next Movies Could Be ‘Indiana Jones 5’ And A ‘West Side Story’ Remake
Steven Spielberghas remained a force in the film industry for over 40 years now, and the legendary director is showing no signs of slowing down.
Fresh off directing the acclaimed Oscar contenderThe Postand wrapping up production on the sci-fi blockbusterReady Player One, Spielberg is already looking to get back in the director’s chair. The next projects he reportedly wants to direct? The fifthIndiana Jonesand a remake of the classic musicalWest Side Story.
Spielberg is reportedly eyeingIndiana Jones 5and aWest Side Storyremake as his next directorial projects, sources familiar to the director toldDeadline.
West Side Storyis apparently a passion project for Spielberg — the director has apparently long been interested in remaking the 1961 musical, itself an adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedyRomeo and Juliet. Deadline reports that frequent Spielberg collaboratorTony Kushner has been working on the script forWest Side Story, which would be a modern version of the Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim musical. Spielberg’s career has spanned nearly every movie genre, with the director never balking from science-fiction, horror, historical dramas, and animated films, but this would be the first time he tackles a musical. The closest he’s come to the genre was probably as executive producer of the musical TV seriesSmash, but this would be the first time he would actually direct a musical. That in and of itself is exciting enough.
Meanwhile, the state of theIndiana Jonessequel has remained in question since the tepid reception of 2008’sIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but when Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, the action-adventure franchise came along as a package deal. Spielberg has reportedly been consideringJurassic WorldstarChris Prattto star alongsideHarrison Fordin the fifth movie about the archaeologist action hero. Disney hiredDavid Koepp to pen the scriptand even set a release date for 2020. But since Spielberg works at his own pace, it’s uncertain whether that date is set in stone.
That’s not to say that Spielberg works at a sluggish pace. Far from it. In fact, Spielberg’s workload could be described as frenzied: he’s often taken on two movies back-to-back, like with last year’sThe Postand the upcomingReady Player One.Multi-tasking Spielberg can produce some of his best work — remember when he released bothJurassic ParkandSchindler’s Listin 1993? I wouldn’t be surprised if he took on bothIndiana Jones 5andWest Side Storyat the same time.
But those will probably be the only films he’s attached to direct for now. Deadline notes that his other project,The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara,has fizzled out after an arduous casting call for the young Jewish lead turned up no results.
