Tag: The Fabelmans

  • ‘The Fabelmans’: An exuberant culmination of the Spielberg brand

    Express News Service

    Few can claim to be the most commercially successful filmmaker of all time. Fewer still can continue to be a relevant storytellers after over five decades in Hollywood. At 76, Steven Spielberg is both these things — a perceptive artist whose craft remains bolstered by the textures of his personal identity, grief, and memory.

    The Fabelmans sees Spielberg revive his childhood memories to craft a honey-tinged paean to the euphoria of falling in love with movies as well as a graceful acknowledgement of parental failures. Both these tracks brim with sight and hindsight. To call the film an “autobiography” or even a “memoir” then feels considerably insufficient simply because Spielberg isn’t just pouring himself into The Fabelmans as he does in every other film he helms.

    Written by Spielberg and his long-term collaborator Tony Kushner, The Fabelmans opens at the movies. The year is 1952 and a young Sammy Fableman (played first by Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord and then by Gabriel LaBelle), the Spielberg stand-in, has just watched his first film at a theatre — Cecil B.

    Demille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. Over the years, Spielberg has widely spoken about this exact moment as a formative childhood memory, articulating the profound impact that the eye-popping train sequence had on him. In The Fabelmans, the filmmaker immerses us into the moment by letting us exactly measure its reverberations.

    We see Sammy ask his parents for a new train set and proceed to recreate the sequence in his own home, ramming it against one of his toy cars. When his pianist mother Mitzi (a sensational Michelle Williams) tells him that he can immortalize the moment by capturing it with a hand-held camera, Sammy learns about the powers of the medium to the stage and conceal reality. In that, this opening sequence is a clever bit of foreshadowing, considering it outlines the filmmaker’s intentions of implicating the medium of film itself.

    ALSO READ | Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’ to debut in Indian theatre in February

    Despite The Fabelmans’ dreamlike quality, there’s something singularly bittersweet about how Spielberg approaches his past — as if simultaneously honouring his upbringing and mourning it.  

    Even more fascinating is the filmmaker grappling with his own selfish impulses — in one painful sequence in which Burt and Mitzi father their four children to tell them some news for instance, we remain focused on Sammy looking at himself in the mirror and dissociating, imagining himself tracking the scene with his camera rather than actually being a part of it. It’s the film’s confessional nature, so emotionally raw in its startling honesty and wisdom, that rankles the most. It helps that this tone is delicately caressed by Janusz Kaminski’s glowing lens, John Williams’ gentle score and a knockout final scene.

    In that sense, The Fabelmans, at once a spectacular coming-of-age movie, a fraught family drama, a passionate artistic manifesto, and a romance, feels like a culmination of everything Spielberg stands for. Imbued with context, we start seeing the larger picture — much like the movies, Spielberg, born to an artist mother and a computer engineer father, is also a product of art and science.

    ALSO READ | ‘I just met God’: SS Rajamouli on meeting Hollywood filmmaker Steven Spielberg

    As we see the director retrace his own inventiveness and attentiveness with the medium, frequently interspersed with nods at his own filmography, The Fabelmans elegantly transforms into a record of the film itself. “Movies are the dreams that you never forget,” Mitzi tells Sammy in the film at one point. Spielberg runs with that idea in The Fabelmans, ensuring that it transforms into a spectacle that doesn’t forget the truth of living.

    Director: Steven SpielbergCast: Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle, Judd Hirsch

    Few can claim to be the most commercially successful filmmaker of all time. Fewer still can continue to be a relevant storytellers after over five decades in Hollywood. At 76, Steven Spielberg is both these things — a perceptive artist whose craft remains bolstered by the textures of his personal identity, grief, and memory.

    The Fabelmans sees Spielberg revive his childhood memories to craft a honey-tinged paean to the euphoria of falling in love with movies as well as a graceful acknowledgement of parental failures. Both these tracks brim with sight and hindsight. To call the film an “autobiography” or even a “memoir” then feels considerably insufficient simply because Spielberg isn’t just pouring himself into The Fabelmans as he does in every other film he helms.

    Written by Spielberg and his long-term collaborator Tony Kushner, The Fabelmans opens at the movies. The year is 1952 and a young Sammy Fableman (played first by Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord and then by Gabriel LaBelle), the Spielberg stand-in, has just watched his first film at a theatre — Cecil B.

    Demille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. Over the years, Spielberg has widely spoken about this exact moment as a formative childhood memory, articulating the profound impact that the eye-popping train sequence had on him. In The Fabelmans, the filmmaker immerses us into the moment by letting us exactly measure its reverberations.

    We see Sammy ask his parents for a new train set and proceed to recreate the sequence in his own home, ramming it against one of his toy cars. When his pianist mother Mitzi (a sensational Michelle Williams) tells him that he can immortalize the moment by capturing it with a hand-held camera, Sammy learns about the powers of the medium to the stage and conceal reality. In that, this opening sequence is a clever bit of foreshadowing, considering it outlines the filmmaker’s intentions of implicating the medium of film itself.

    ALSO READ | Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’ to debut in Indian theatre in February

    Despite The Fabelmans’ dreamlike quality, there’s something singularly bittersweet about how Spielberg approaches his past — as if simultaneously honouring his upbringing and mourning it.  

    Even more fascinating is the filmmaker grappling with his own selfish impulses — in one painful sequence in which Burt and Mitzi father their four children to tell them some news for instance, we remain focused on Sammy looking at himself in the mirror and dissociating, imagining himself tracking the scene with his camera rather than actually being a part of it. It’s the film’s confessional nature, so emotionally raw in its startling honesty and wisdom, that rankles the most. It helps that this tone is delicately caressed by Janusz Kaminski’s glowing lens, John Williams’ gentle score and a knockout final scene.

    In that sense, The Fabelmans, at once a spectacular coming-of-age movie, a fraught family drama, a passionate artistic manifesto, and a romance, feels like a culmination of everything Spielberg stands for. Imbued with context, we start seeing the larger picture — much like the movies, Spielberg, born to an artist mother and a computer engineer father, is also a product of art and science.

    ALSO READ | ‘I just met God’: SS Rajamouli on meeting Hollywood filmmaker Steven Spielberg

    As we see the director retrace his own inventiveness and attentiveness with the medium, frequently interspersed with nods at his own filmography, The Fabelmans elegantly transforms into a record of the film itself. “Movies are the dreams that you never forget,” Mitzi tells Sammy in the film at one point. Spielberg runs with that idea in The Fabelmans, ensuring that it transforms into a spectacle that doesn’t forget the truth of living.

    Director: Steven Spielberg
    Cast: Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle, Judd Hirsch

  • Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’ to debut in Indian theatre in February

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Veteran filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s Golden Globe-winning movie “The Fabelmans” will be released in Indian cinema halls on February 10, Reliance Entertainment said on Friday.

    Described as a deeply personal portrait of a 20th-century American childhood, the movie presents a universal coming-of-age story about an isolated young man’s pursuit of his dreams.

    It is based on Spielberg’s experiences as a child in Arizona.

    The movie, which features an ensemble cast of Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen and Judd Hirsch, is produced by Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Reliance Entertainment “We, at Reliance Entertainment, are extremely proud of our long-lasting and fruitful partnership with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment.

    This association has borne fruit with films like ‘The Help’, ‘War Horse’, ‘Lincoln’, ‘Bridge of Spies’, ‘The Post’, ‘Green Book’, and ‘1917’ winning accolades at the Oscars and Golden Globe among others.

    “We have brought to cinemas in India these creative masterpieces and now, on the same scale, we bring ‘The Fabelmans’ to audiences on February 10,” Dhruv Sinha, Head of International Businesses, Reliance Entertainment, said in a statement.

    Directed by Spielberg, “The Fabelmans” is written by the filmmaker in collaboration with Tony Kushner.

    The duo earlier worked on movies such as “Lincoln” and “Munich”.

    The film recently received five nominations at the 80th Golden Globe Awards and won the trophies for ‘Best Motion Picture ‘Drama’ and ‘Best Director’ for Spielberg.

    MUMBAI: Veteran filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s Golden Globe-winning movie “The Fabelmans” will be released in Indian cinema halls on February 10, Reliance Entertainment said on Friday.

    Described as a deeply personal portrait of a 20th-century American childhood, the movie presents a universal coming-of-age story about an isolated young man’s pursuit of his dreams.

    It is based on Spielberg’s experiences as a child in Arizona.

    The movie, which features an ensemble cast of Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen and Judd Hirsch, is produced by Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Reliance Entertainment “We, at Reliance Entertainment, are extremely proud of our long-lasting and fruitful partnership with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment.

    This association has borne fruit with films like ‘The Help’, ‘War Horse’, ‘Lincoln’, ‘Bridge of Spies’, ‘The Post’, ‘Green Book’, and ‘1917’ winning accolades at the Oscars and Golden Globe among others.

    “We have brought to cinemas in India these creative masterpieces and now, on the same scale, we bring ‘The Fabelmans’ to audiences on February 10,” Dhruv Sinha, Head of International Businesses, Reliance Entertainment, said in a statement.

    Directed by Spielberg, “The Fabelmans” is written by the filmmaker in collaboration with Tony Kushner.

    The duo earlier worked on movies such as “Lincoln” and “Munich”.

    The film recently received five nominations at the 80th Golden Globe Awards and won the trophies for ‘Best Motion Picture ‘Drama’ and ‘Best Director’ for Spielberg.

  • ‘The Fabelmans’ review: Spielberg looks back in vanity

    By Associated Press

    A movie by one of Hollywood’s most successful directors that’s based on his early life begins, appropriately enough, at a movie theatre and ends in a movie back lot.

    “The Fabelmans” is clearly a very personal film for Steven Spielberg and it’s as much a coming-of-age journey as a form of expensive therapy with John Williams offering lovely mood music.

    The script — Spielberg reteams with playwright Tony Kushner — charts both fledgling directors Sammy Fabelman’s first 20 years as well as the cracks appearing in his parents’ agonizing marriage. The focus sometimes gets a bit blurry, to be honest, and the whole thing often doesn’t add up to much.

    For a film by a director about a director, the main character is surprisingly callow. We first meet a frightened little Sammy Fabelman outside a New Jersey movie theatre that is playing Cecil B. DeMille’s 1952 classic “The Greatest Show on Earth.” He’s suddenly too scared to see his first motion picture.

    A screengrab from the trailer of the movie “The Fablemans” (Photo | YouTube)

    “Movies are dreams you never forget,” says his mother, a frustrated concert pianist played by Michelle Williams, trying to coax him in. “Dreams are scary,” he replies.

    That film — with a horrific train crash which traumatizes the boy — changes Fabelman forever. Over the next decades, filmmaking is his passion, despite his engineering father’s pooh-poohing it as a mere hobby. Why Sammy must direct, we are told, may have something to do with his wanting to be in control. But that’s as far as we get with him on the couch.

    We then jump in time to a teenage Sammy, who moves with his family to Arizona and casts all his Boy Scout pals in a makeshift Western inspired by John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” This Sam is played with real honesty by Gabriel LaBelle and he’s turned it into a sweet, star-making vehicle.

    Meanwhile, an overacting Williams has come into focus — a mom who is a little batty, sometimes goofy and sometimes downright dangerous, as when she drives all four of her kids into a tornado. You may leave the theatre knowing as much of what’s going on with her as when you arrived. “You really see me,” she says to her son at one point, but the rest of us really don’t.

    We learn not all is honky-dory at home and there’s maybe something going on between mom, dad (a superbly stiff Paul Dano) and dad’s best friend (really good Seth Rogen). Audiences will not be surprised when this is revealed. And the way our hero figures it out is pure cinematic — he sees clues in his own home movies. And he confronts the offending party as only an auteur would — instead of talking, he shows an edited film.

    “The Fabelmans” gets a needed jolt of energy when Judd Hirsch arrives as an estranged uncle who once was in the circus. He immediately sees in his nephew a fellow artistic spirit who will have to pick between family and his art, just as his mother has done.

    “It will tear out your heart and leave you lonely. Art is no game. Art is as dangerous as a lion’s mouth,” his uncle tells him. “We’re junkies and art is our drug.”

    A big wet valentine to filmmaking, “The Fabelmans” fits into the latest wave of directors looking backwards, including Alejandro Iñárritu’s “Bardo,” Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” and James Gray’s “Armageddon Time.” And Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age “Almost Famous” just landed on Broadway in musical form.

    ALSO READ | Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’ wins Toronto festival top prize

    Many of these projects seem to passionately argue for the healing and communal power of art by preaching to the converted. And they often do it with such fondness and reverence that it gets way too heady. They’re getting high on their own supply.

    In the third act of “The Fabelmans,” the Spielberg family — sorry Fabelman family — moves again, this time to California and the movie angles in another direction, with an unlikely romance amid the reality of antisemitism, culminating in a lesson about the power of film to create an image.

    A screengrab from the trailer of the movie “The Fablemans” (Photo | YouTube)

    But it shares the rest of the film’s heightened mannerisms, the artificiality of its supposed madcap humour and its tendency to create little arias of theatrical speech.

    The movie ends with a warning to the young filmmaker from no less than the great director John Ford (a hysterical cameo from David Lynch). “This business will rip you apart,” he snarls. And yet Fabelman is overjoyed to connect with his hero and doesn’t listen. He’s a junkie, after all. But those of us, not successful Hollywood directors might like it when he turns his camera at things other than himself.

    “The Fabelmans,” a Universal Pictures release that opens in limited release on Friday and worldwide on November 23, is rated PG-13 for some strong language, thematic elements, brief violence and drug use. 

    Running time: 151 minutes. Two stars out of four

    A movie by one of Hollywood’s most successful directors that’s based on his early life begins, appropriately enough, at a movie theatre and ends in a movie back lot.

    “The Fabelmans” is clearly a very personal film for Steven Spielberg and it’s as much a coming-of-age journey as a form of expensive therapy with John Williams offering lovely mood music.

    The script — Spielberg reteams with playwright Tony Kushner — charts both fledgling directors Sammy Fabelman’s first 20 years as well as the cracks appearing in his parents’ agonizing marriage. The focus sometimes gets a bit blurry, to be honest, and the whole thing often doesn’t add up to much.

    For a film by a director about a director, the main character is surprisingly callow. We first meet a frightened little Sammy Fabelman outside a New Jersey movie theatre that is playing Cecil B. DeMille’s 1952 classic “The Greatest Show on Earth.” He’s suddenly too scared to see his first motion picture.

    A screengrab from the trailer of the movie “The Fablemans” (Photo | YouTube)

    “Movies are dreams you never forget,” says his mother, a frustrated concert pianist played by Michelle Williams, trying to coax him in. “Dreams are scary,” he replies.

    That film — with a horrific train crash which traumatizes the boy — changes Fabelman forever. Over the next decades, filmmaking is his passion, despite his engineering father’s pooh-poohing it as a mere hobby. Why Sammy must direct, we are told, may have something to do with his wanting to be in control. But that’s as far as we get with him on the couch.

    We then jump in time to a teenage Sammy, who moves with his family to Arizona and casts all his Boy Scout pals in a makeshift Western inspired by John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” This Sam is played with real honesty by Gabriel LaBelle and he’s turned it into a sweet, star-making vehicle.

    Meanwhile, an overacting Williams has come into focus — a mom who is a little batty, sometimes goofy and sometimes downright dangerous, as when she drives all four of her kids into a tornado. You may leave the theatre knowing as much of what’s going on with her as when you arrived. “You really see me,” she says to her son at one point, but the rest of us really don’t.

    We learn not all is honky-dory at home and there’s maybe something going on between mom, dad (a superbly stiff Paul Dano) and dad’s best friend (really good Seth Rogen). Audiences will not be surprised when this is revealed. And the way our hero figures it out is pure cinematic — he sees clues in his own home movies. And he confronts the offending party as only an auteur would — instead of talking, he shows an edited film.

    “The Fabelmans” gets a needed jolt of energy when Judd Hirsch arrives as an estranged uncle who once was in the circus. He immediately sees in his nephew a fellow artistic spirit who will have to pick between family and his art, just as his mother has done.

    “It will tear out your heart and leave you lonely. Art is no game. Art is as dangerous as a lion’s mouth,” his uncle tells him. “We’re junkies and art is our drug.”

    A big wet valentine to filmmaking, “The Fabelmans” fits into the latest wave of directors looking backwards, including Alejandro Iñárritu’s “Bardo,” Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” and James Gray’s “Armageddon Time.” And Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical, coming-of-age “Almost Famous” just landed on Broadway in musical form.

    ALSO READ | Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’ wins Toronto festival top prize

    Many of these projects seem to passionately argue for the healing and communal power of art by preaching to the converted. And they often do it with such fondness and reverence that it gets way too heady. They’re getting high on their own supply.

    In the third act of “The Fabelmans,” the Spielberg family — sorry Fabelman family — moves again, this time to California and the movie angles in another direction, with an unlikely romance amid the reality of antisemitism, culminating in a lesson about the power of film to create an image.

    A screengrab from the trailer of the movie “The Fablemans” (Photo | YouTube)

    But it shares the rest of the film’s heightened mannerisms, the artificiality of its supposed madcap humour and its tendency to create little arias of theatrical speech.

    The movie ends with a warning to the young filmmaker from no less than the great director John Ford (a hysterical cameo from David Lynch). “This business will rip you apart,” he snarls. And yet Fabelman is overjoyed to connect with his hero and doesn’t listen. He’s a junkie, after all. But those of us, not successful Hollywood directors might like it when he turns his camera at things other than himself.

    “The Fabelmans,” a Universal Pictures release that opens in limited release on Friday and worldwide on November 23, is rated PG-13 for some strong language, thematic elements, brief violence and drug use. 

    Running time: 151 minutes. Two stars out of four

  • Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’ wins Toronto festival top prize

    By AFP

    Steven Spielberg’s deeply personal new movie “The Fabelmans” secured its position as an early Oscars frontrunner Sunday by winning the top prize at the Toronto International Film festival.

    “The Fabelmans,” out in theaters in November, is a semi-autobiographical drama based on Spielberg’s childhood, covering his parents’ troubled marriage, anti-Semitic bullying and his early efforts directing zero-budget movies with his teenage friends.

    It earned a raucous standing ovation from the audience at its world premiere last weekend at the Toronto festival, known as TIFF.

    “As I said on stage the other night, above all I’m glad I brought this film to Toronto,” Spielberg said in a statement Sunday.

    “This is the most personal film I’ve made and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF so intimate and personal for me and my entire ‘Fabelman’ family.”

    Voted for by audiences, the People’s Choice Award at North America’s biggest film festival has become something of an early Oscars bellwether, predicting eventual Academy Award best-picture winners such as “Nomadland” in 2020.

    Spielberg, considered one of Hollywood’s greatest living directors, has won three Academy Awards: best picture and best director for “Schindler’s List,” and best director again for “Saving Private Ryan.”

    He has been nominated for 19 Oscars to date, and will be expected to add to that tally at next year’s Academy Awards, on March 12 in Los Angeles.

    The last 10 winners of the Toronto People’s Choice Awards were all nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards, with three winning the Oscar, including 2019’s surprise victor “Green Book.”

    “12 Years a Slave” (2013), “The King’s Speech” (2010) and “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) all began their journeys to Oscar glory with the Toronto prize.

    At its premiere last weekend, Spielberg told a rapturous audience how he had long wanted to make such a deeply personal movie, but had eventually been motivated by the “fear” of the pandemic.

    “I don’t think anybody knew in March or April of 2020 what was going to be the state of the art, the state of life, even a year from then,” said Spielberg.

    “I just felt that if I was going to leave anything behind, what was the thing that I really need to resolve and unpack about my mom and my dad and my sisters?”

    “It wasn’t now or never, but it almost felt that way,” said the 75-year-old director.

    Toronto runners-up included “Women Talking” by Sarah Polley and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” by Rian Johnson.

    The top documentary prize went to Hubert Davis’s “Black Ice,” a Canadian movie about historic racism in the world of professional ice hockey.

    The Toronto festival, known for its large cinephile crowds and A-list stars, was hit badly by the pandemic, but this year saw the return of packed audiences and red carpets.

    Steven Spielberg’s deeply personal new movie “The Fabelmans” secured its position as an early Oscars frontrunner Sunday by winning the top prize at the Toronto International Film festival.

    “The Fabelmans,” out in theaters in November, is a semi-autobiographical drama based on Spielberg’s childhood, covering his parents’ troubled marriage, anti-Semitic bullying and his early efforts directing zero-budget movies with his teenage friends.

    It earned a raucous standing ovation from the audience at its world premiere last weekend at the Toronto festival, known as TIFF.

    “As I said on stage the other night, above all I’m glad I brought this film to Toronto,” Spielberg said in a statement Sunday.

    “This is the most personal film I’ve made and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF so intimate and personal for me and my entire ‘Fabelman’ family.”

    Voted for by audiences, the People’s Choice Award at North America’s biggest film festival has become something of an early Oscars bellwether, predicting eventual Academy Award best-picture winners such as “Nomadland” in 2020.

    Spielberg, considered one of Hollywood’s greatest living directors, has won three Academy Awards: best picture and best director for “Schindler’s List,” and best director again for “Saving Private Ryan.”

    He has been nominated for 19 Oscars to date, and will be expected to add to that tally at next year’s Academy Awards, on March 12 in Los Angeles.

    The last 10 winners of the Toronto People’s Choice Awards were all nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards, with three winning the Oscar, including 2019’s surprise victor “Green Book.”

    “12 Years a Slave” (2013), “The King’s Speech” (2010) and “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) all began their journeys to Oscar glory with the Toronto prize.

    At its premiere last weekend, Spielberg told a rapturous audience how he had long wanted to make such a deeply personal movie, but had eventually been motivated by the “fear” of the pandemic.

    “I don’t think anybody knew in March or April of 2020 what was going to be the state of the art, the state of life, even a year from then,” said Spielberg.

    “I just felt that if I was going to leave anything behind, what was the thing that I really need to resolve and unpack about my mom and my dad and my sisters?”

    “It wasn’t now or never, but it almost felt that way,” said the 75-year-old director.

    Toronto runners-up included “Women Talking” by Sarah Polley and “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” by Rian Johnson.

    The top documentary prize went to Hubert Davis’s “Black Ice,” a Canadian movie about historic racism in the world of professional ice hockey.

    The Toronto festival, known for its large cinephile crowds and A-list stars, was hit badly by the pandemic, but this year saw the return of packed audiences and red carpets.

  • Trailer out for Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans    

    By Express News Service

    The first official trailer for The Fabelmans captures the early years of a boy named Sammy Fabelman and how he ends up being enamoured by the art of cinema. Sammy and his entire family are loosely based on filmmaker Spielberg and his family. The trailer shows us a young Sammy being introduced to films by his artistically-inclined mother, he then goes on to take filmmaking as his passion. 

    The film is directed by the auteur filmmaker himself, based on a script that he co-wrote with Tony Kushner. The film is set in post-World War II USA and deals with various themes that represent that era. The Fabelmans stars Gabriel LaBelle as young Sammy Fabelman; he is joined by an ensemble cast that includes Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and Paul Dano. Legendary filmmaker David Lynch is reported to make an appearance in the film. Spielberg is producing the film under his Amblin Entertainment along with Universal Pictures. The film just had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

    The first official trailer for The Fabelmans captures the early years of a boy named Sammy Fabelman and how he ends up being enamoured by the art of cinema. Sammy and his entire family are loosely based on filmmaker Spielberg and his family. The trailer shows us a young Sammy being introduced to films by his artistically-inclined mother, he then goes on to take filmmaking as his passion. 

    The film is directed by the auteur filmmaker himself, based on a script that he co-wrote with Tony Kushner. The film is set in post-World War II USA and deals with various themes that represent that era. The Fabelmans stars Gabriel LaBelle as young Sammy Fabelman; he is joined by an ensemble cast that includes Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and Paul Dano. Legendary filmmaker David Lynch is reported to make an appearance in the film. Spielberg is producing the film under his Amblin Entertainment along with Universal Pictures. The film just had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

  • Filmmaker David Lynch joins cast of  The Fabelmans

    By Express News Service

    Hollywood filmmaker David Lynch has joined the cast of Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film The Fabelmans.

    The project marks the first collaboration between the two legendary filmmakers. Lynch will star alongside Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Paul Dano, Julia Butters, and newcomer Gabriel LaBelle.

    Lynch has previously featured in guest roles in many shows and movies, including his own series Twin Peaks, in which he played the role of Gordon Cole.

    The Fabelmans is a semi-autobiographical film that is loosely based on Spielberg’s childhood. Spielberg co-wrote the script with Tony Kushner of Lincoln and Munich fame.

    The film is currently in post-production. The film’s ensemble also includes Judd Hirsch, Sam Rechner, Oakes Fegley, Chloe East, Julia Butters, Jeannie Berlin, Robin Bartlett, Jonathan Hadary, and Isabelle Kusman.

  • David Lynch signed for Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical ‘The Fabelmans’

    By IANS

    LOS ANGELES: Legendary filmmaker David Lynch, who is known for films like ‘Mulholland Drive’, ‘Eraserhead’, ‘Blue Velvet’, and the historical drama ‘The Elephant Man’, has come on board in the capacity of an actor for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming drama ‘The Fabelmans’.

    The project will serve as the first collaboration between the two celebrated directors, who broke out in the 1970s and have charmed the cinephiles through their exceptional body of work, reports Variety.

    As per Variety, while plot details are yet unknown, ‘The Fabelmans’ is touted to be a semi-autobiographical project and borrows heavily from its helmer, Spielberg’s time growing up in Arizona.

    The other cast members on the project include Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Paul Dano, Julia Butters and debutant Gabriel LaBelle. As per Variety, Williams and Dano are expected to essay the characters drawn from Spielberg’s parents, while Rogen’s role is said to be influenced by Spielberg’s uncle.

    LaBelle is reported to star as aspiring filmmaker Sammy, a Spielberg analogue, while Butters portrays his sister, Anne. However, the details about David’s are heavily guarded.

    In addition, ‘The Fabelmans’ also stars Judd Hirsch, Sam Rechner, Oakes Fegley, Chloe East, Julia Butters, Jeannie Berlin, Robin Bartlett, Jonathan Hadary and Isabelle Kusman. Spielberg has been co-written the script with Tony Kushner, who is his frequent collaborator.

  • Sam Rechner joins Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’

    By Express News Service
    Australian actor Sam Rechner has just been cast as a classmate of a young Steven Spielberg in the director’s autobiographical film. The film, which will be Spielberg’s follow-up to this year’s West Side Story, was titled The Fabelmans last month.

    Sam RechnerRechner joins a star-studded cast that includes Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Paul Dano, Julia Butters, and Gabriel Labelle. The Fabelmans is loosely based on the upbringing of Spielberg in Arizona.

    The Fabelmans will be Rechner’s second film. His first was in the upcoming Australian drama, Ruby’s Choice, starring Jane Seymour.

    Rechner also has theatre credits, including starring in productions of Animal Farm and 12 Angry Men.

    Williams and Dano are set to play the mother and father of Spielberg, while Rogen will play one of the director’s favourite uncles growing up.

    Gabriel LaBelle was cast to play young Spielberg last month.

    Spielberg co-wrote the script with Tony Kushner of Lincoln and Munich fame.  

    Filming on The Fabelmans is set to begin this July around the Los Angeles area, and no release date has been announced yet for the autobiographical film.