Steven Spielberg (119 page)

Forbes
estimated Spielberg’s net worth in “The World’s Billionaires 2009,” March 11, 2009, and in “The World’s Billionaires,” March 10, 2010. Spielberg’s statement that money “is not a factor in my life” is from J. D. Reed, “Steven Spielberg,”
People
, March 15, 1999. Geffen’s comments on Spielberg’s investing are from Stephen J. Dubner, “Steven the Good,”
NYT Magazine
, February 14, 1999; other details are from Ronald Grover, “Steven Spielberg: The Storyteller,”
Business Week
, July 13, 1998.

Spielberg’s agreement with DreamWorks is reported in Corliss and Ressner, which also includes his comments about returning to directing. His misgivings about
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
are from that article and Peter Biskind, “
A World
Apart,” Premiere, May 1997; Jeffrey Katzenberg commented on Spielberg’s outside obligations in Christopher Goodwin, “Spielberg’s D-Day,”
Sunday Times
(London), July 26, 1998. Box-office gross figures for
The Lost World
and for other Spielberg films are from the Web sites boxofficemojo.com, boxofficeguru.com, the-numbers.com, and imdb.com. Michael Crichton’s novel
The Lost World
was published by Knopf, New York, 1995. Spielberg discussed David Koepp in an article on Koepp by Tatiana Siegel,
DV
, July 14, 2008. Army Archerd’s
DV
column, May 28, 1997, reported the change for the Japanese version. Joseph McBride reviewed
The Lost World for Boxoffice
, May 1997.

Historical sources on the
Amistad
incident include Howard Jones,
Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy
, Oxford University Press, New York, 1987; and Iyunolu F. Osagie,
The Amistad Revolt: Memory, Slavery, and the Politics of Identity in the United States and Sierra Leone
, University of Georgia Press, Athens, 2000. John Quincy Adams’s speech to the U.S. Supreme Court, February 24 and March 1, 1841, was published in 1841 by S. W. Benedict and was found on historycentral.com. The decision of the court in
The United States, Appellants, v. The Libellants and Claimants of the Schooner Amistad, Her Tackle, Apparel, and Furniture, Together with Her Cargo, and the Africans Mentioned and Described in the Several Libels and Claims, Appellees
, 40 U.S. 518, January 1841 Term, was found at law.umkc.edu.

Debbie Allen’s account of how she learned about the
Amistad
incident and how she persuaded Spielberg to make the film is from the author’s interview with her, published as “Free at Last,”
Boxoffice
, November 1997.
Amistad
I
, edited by John Alfred Williams and Charles F. Harris, was published by Vintage Books, New York, 1970. McBride reviewed the film for
Cinemania Online
, December 1997. Spielberg’s initial ignorance of the incident and his connecting it with Donald DeFreeze are reported in Bruce Newman, “Remember the
Amistad?
” LAT
, March 28, 1997. Spielberg’s comment about making the film for his children is from McBride, “Free at Last” (quoted from a
Newsweek
article). William A. Owens’s novel
Black Mutiny: The Revolt on the Schooner Amistad
, Pilgrim Press, Philadelphia, 1968, listed as a source in the film’s end credits, was originally published as
Slave Mutiny: The Revolt on the Schooner Amistad
, New York, H. Day, 1953. Barbara Chase-Riboud’s novel
Echo of Lions
was published by Morrow, New York, 1989. Dustin Hoffman’s passing on an offer to appear in
Amistad
was reported by Anita M. Busch, “Hoffman rolled on with
Sphere,” DV,
November 15, 1996.

Spielberg’s comment about the grosses of
Amistad
is from an interview with
LAT
, December 28, 1998. The film’s production cost is from the author’s interview with
Allen. Spike Lee’s criticism of Spielberg for directing the film was made on
Nightline
, ABC-TV, 1997. Spielberg’s observation that “people seemed more interested” in
Chase-Riboud’s
lawsuit over the film is from Christopher Goodwin, “Spielberg’s D-day,”
Sunday Times
(London), July 26, 1998. Sources on the lawsuit include (1997): Edmund Newton, “Slaving for DreamWorks,”
New Times Los Angeles
, October 23 (with quotes “I absolutely feel” from Chase-Riboud and “Miss Chase-Riboud acts” from Bertram Fields); Bernard Weinraub, “Spielberg Film Faces Charge of Plagiarism,”
NYT
, November 13; Claudia Eller, “Novelist Urges Court to Block Spielberg Film,”
LAT
, November 18; Bruce Handy, “Steven Stealberg?”
Time
, November 24; Rebecca Mead, “One novelist, two screenwriters, and confusion aboard the
Amistad,” The New Yorker
, December 1; Eller, “DreamWorks Suggests Writer ‘Cribbed’ from Earlier Work,”
LAT
, December 3; Adam Sandler, “
Amistad
accusers fire back,”
DV
, December 4; Sandler, “
Amistad
to set sail unshackled,”
DV
, December 9; and (screenwriter) David Franzoni, “Giving Credit Where It’s Due in
Amistad,” LAT
, December 15.

Judge Audrey Collins’s statement is from “
Amistad
embarks after suit fails to stop opening,”
HR
, December 9, 1997. The settlement and Chase-Riboud’s statement about it are reported in the February 10, 1998, articles “Writer Settles Claim Against Film
Amistad,” LAT;
and Weinraub, “Plagiarism Suit Over
Amistad
Is Withdrawn,”
NYT
. The copyright infringement suit over
Citizen Kane
involving the book
Imperial Hearst
by Ferdinand Lundberg is discussed in Robert L. Carringer, “The Scripts of
Citizen Kane
,”
Critical Inquiry
5 (1978), reprinted in James Naremore, ed.,
Orson Welles’s “Citizen Kane
,” Oxford University Press, New York, 2004. The author read both Franzoni’s script for
Amistad
and the final shooting script by Steven Zaillian (who is uncredited onscreen).

Spielberg’s comment about first reading the Robert Rodat script of
Saving Private Ryan
is from Dubner. The uncredited work of Frank Darabont and others on the script is discussed in Gritten, “When the Going Gets Tough”; and Andrew Levy, “
Saving Private Ryan
,” both in
DGA Monthly
, January 1999. Tom Hanks told Jack Garner about the actors changing the script: “Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks,” Rochester (N.Y.)
Democrat and Chronicle
, July 24, 1998. Bart discusses the packaging of the project in
The Gross: The Hits, The Flops—The Summer That Ate Hollywood
, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1999. Spielberg’s recollection of the 1972 incident with the elderly veteran is from the Levy interview. The history of the Sullivan brothers is related in John Cosden, “Remembering the Sullivan Brothers,”
Irish America
, March 1998; and that of the Niland brothers in Stephen E. Ambrose,
Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest
, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1992; Jon Meacham, “Caught in the Line of Fire,”
Newsweek
, July 13, 1998; and “Home Truths,”
People
, September 7, 1998.

Spielberg’s comments about making
Ryan
for his father, Arnold Spielberg, are from Reed and Dubner. Arnold’s complaint that
Ryan
is not about the war in Asia is mentioned by Steven in Richard Schickel’s 2007 documentary
Spielberg on Spielberg
. Reports (2007) on
The Pacific
miniseries include Steven Zeitchik, “HBO’s
Pacific
Fleet,”
DV
, April 25; and “HBO Films well-armed for Pacific,”
HR
, May 1. Spielberg’s reconciliation with his father is reported in Robert Sullivan, “Dad Again,”
Life
, June 1999. Arnold’s work for the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation is mentioned in that article and in Dubner. Information on the activities of the foundation is from Jacques Steinberg, “The Holocaust as a Teaching Tool,”
NYT
, October 21, 1998; David Bloom, “Shoah must go on with restructuring,”
DV
, March 7, 2002; and Weinraub, “For Spielberg, An Anniversary Full of Urgency,”
NYT
, March 9, 2004. The transfer of the foundation’s archives to the University of Southern California was reported in Monte Morin, “Holocaust Collection to Be Housed at USC,”
LAT
, September 17, 2005; Steven Barrie-Anthony, “Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation Officially Joins USC,”
LAT
, October 21, 2005; and in “Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation Becomes a Part of the University of Southern California,” Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation press release, September 16, 2005; see also the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History
and Education Web site, college.usc.edu/vhi. Sources on Spielberg’s philanthropy include Arnold Spielberg’s interview with the author; Todd Longwell, “Productions of the Heart,”
HR
, March 2002; and
Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation
, a 2009 promotional video in which Steven Spielberg appears.

Robert Capa’s photographs of the D-Day landings appeared in “BEACHHEADS OF NORMANDY: The Fateful Battle for Europe Is Joined by Sea and Air,”
Life
, June 19, 1944. The history of the photos is reported in “The Editor: John Morris,” 1998, skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html; and John Morris, “How
Life
Covered D-Day,”
International Herald Tribune
, 2004. Levy reported Spielberg’s discussion of the photos and his father’s comment on the war in color. Spielberg commented on the influence of John Ford’s and George Stevens’s World War II footage in Stephen Pizzello, “Five-Star General,”
American Cinematographer
, August 1998. Photographs of
Saving Private Ryan
by David James are published with excerpts from Rodat’s script and comments by the filmmakers in
Saving Private Ryan: The Men. The Mission. The Movie
, Newmarket Press, New York, 1998, and in the DreamWorks
Saving Private Ryan
pressbook, 1998.

Spielberg discussed the filming of the D-Day sequence in Levy and
Spielberg on Spielberg
and described D-Day as a “slaughter” in DreamWorks’ Production Notes. Information on the involvement of the Irish Defense Forces in the sequence is from the Production Notes; Martina Delvin and Jeff Kaye, “
Private
Eyes Ireland for key action scenes,”
HR
, May 2, 1997; Joseph McBride, “
Saving Private Ryan,” Irish America
, September-October 1998; Françoise Meaux Saint Marc, “There’ll be storm clouds over …,”
Screen International
, September 11, 1998; and Conor Feehan, “How we made the best movie battle scene ever,”
Independent.ie
, June 7, 2006. Anthony Lane commented on the sequence in “Soldiering On,”
The New Yorker
, August 3, 1998.

Spielberg’s concern that
Ryan
would be too painful is from Kenneth Turan, “The Thrill Isn’t Gone,”
LAT
, December 28, 1998; Spielberg reported being “flabbergasted” by its success in Tom Shone, “The man who fights fear with film,”
Sunday Times
(London), September 13, 1998. The director’s wanting to “resensitize” the audience is quoted in Michael Tunison, “Spielberg at War,”
Entertainment Today
, July 24, 1998; Spielberg’s comment “I’m asking the audience” is from Hendrik Hertzberg, “Theatre of War,”
The New Yorker,
July 27, 1998. Spielberg told Dubner and other journalists that he identified with the character of Upham.

Reviews of
Ryan
(1998) include Vincent Canby, “War Movies: The Horror and the Honor of a Good War,”
NYT
, August 10; Janet Maslin, “
Saving Private Ryan:
Panoramic and Personal Visions of War’s Anguish,”
NYT
, July 24; David Ansen, “Witnessing the Inferno,”
Newsweek
, July 27; and Jonathan Rosenbaum, “Cutting Heroes Down to Size” (reviewed with
Small Soldiers), Chicago Reader
, July 24. See also Tom Carson, “And the Leni Riefenstahl Award for Rabid Nationalism Goes to … : A reconsideration of
Saving Private Ryan,” Esquire
, March 1999; Frank P. Tomasulo, “Empire of the Gun: Steven Spielberg’s
Saving Private Ryan
and American Chauvinism,” in Jon Lewis, ed.,
The End of Cinema As We Know It: American Film in the Nineties
, New York University Press, New York, 2001; and John Hodgkins, “In the Wake of Desert Storm: A Consideration of Modern World War II Films,”
Journal of Popular Film and Television
, Summer 2002.

Spielberg’s filming plans for
Lindbergh
by A. Scott Berg (Putnam, New York, 1998) are discussed in (1998): Andrew Hindes, “Spielberg eyes sky,”
Variety
, April 3; Weinraub, “At the Movies,”
NYT
, April 10; Michael Fleming, “Spielberg Sets Co-Pilot,”
DV
, October 6; and Army Archerd’s column,
DV
, November 11; and (1999): Dubner; and Chris Petrikin and Nick Madigan, “Meyjes deal cues
Lindbergh
revamp,”
DV
, November 11; see also Ron Rosenbaum, “We Married a Fascist,” New York
Observer
, June 20, 2004.

Spielberg’s involvement with the National D-Day Museum was reported in “Private Ryan’s Museum,”
LAT
, August 20, 1998. Articles on his honors in the wake of
Ryan
include “Spielberg’s German Medal,”
LAT
, September 9, 1998; Scott Roxborough,
“Spielberg Gets National Merit in Germany,”
HR
, September 8, 1998;
LAT
item on U.S. Army decoration, September 17, 1998; “Saving Steven” (U.S. Department of Defense award and Smithson Medal),
HR
, August 11, 1999; “Steven Spielberg and August Wilson Among Arts Medal Winners” (National Humanities Medal),
NYT
, September 23, 1999; “Honoring Private Ryan” (U.S. Navy medal),
LAT
, November 12, 1999; Eric C. Sanitate, “Honorary U.K. knighthood set for Spielberg,”
HR
, December 29, 2000; “Knighted,”
US
, February 12, 2001;
People
item (on knighthood), February 12, 2001; and Alison James, “French Kissed” (Légion d’honneur),
Variety
, September 13, 2004. Film industry awards include (2000): Dave McNary, “DGA to Fete Spielberg” (career achievement award),
DV
, February 1; and Cathy Dunkley, “Spielberg tapped for BAFTA’s first Kubrick award,”
HR
, May 2.