The Dark Side of Spielberg, based on real-life experiences from ``The Fabelmans''

Session on ZOOM

The project started to move forward after the COVID-19 pandemic. Spielberg said:

"It wasn't until the pandemic hit that I really started to think about making a film. (Omitted) I had a lot of free time on my hands. I would drive for hours, all over Los Angeles... Pacific Coast Highway, Calabasas, Twentynine Palms. It gave me more time to think about what was going on in the world. And I started thinking about what stories I hadn't told that I would be angry with myself for not telling. The answer was always the same: stories from my formative years, between the ages of 7 and 18." (*1)

The idea for "The Fabelmans" itself had been discussed with Tony Kushner for years. He is a celebrated screenwriter who has worked with Spielberg on " Munich " (2005), " Lincoln " (2012), and " West Side Story " (2021), and is something of a close friend of Spielberg.

“The Fabelmans” © Storyteller Distribution Co., LLC. All Rights Reserved.

"I was the one who encouraged him to do The Fabelmans. On the first day of shooting Munich , I told him we had to make it into a movie. I gently nudged him ever since. And when he finally decided to go for it, I applied just the right amount of pressure to move the project forward." (*2)

For about three months, the two held sessions on ZOOM three days a week, four hours a day. Tony Kushner carefully collected the words Spielberg spoke and refined them into an 81-page draft. Even though they were close friends, it would have been uncomfortable for Spielberg to talk about his family secrets and the conflicts he was experiencing at the time. However, Tony Kushner encouraged him, and sometimes comforted him, to shape the contours of the story.

The Fabelmans was completed through a process that was almost like a therapy.

A "special film" for Spielberg