Filmmaker Steven Spielberg always moves fluidly from genre to genre, and perhaps there’s no better example than the recent 30th anniversary of 1993’s “Schindler’s List,” which was released the same year as the couldn’t-be-totally-different “Jurassic Park.” And so, coming off his grounded and very personal family drama, “The Fabelmans,” for his next film, Spielberg might be going back to the sci-fi genre again. Variety reports that one of Spielberg’s next options might be an untitled UFO movie that he came up with and is being put to paper by veteran screenwriter David Koepp (“Mission: Impossible“).
While a studio isn’t named, there is a presumption that his studio Amblin and producer pal Frank Marshall would be involved, given it’s an original project from Spielberg and longtime collaborator Koepp. The actual direction of this new mysterious UFO project is unknown, so for now, all we have is conjecture and speculation.
Koepp and Spielberg have a long history together and have previously worked together on “Jurassic Park,” “The Lost World,” “Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull.” Spielberg and Koepp also worked on “The Dial of Destiny” before James Mangold replaced him as director, and this new film could harken back to their remake of “War of The Worlds.”
Of course, Spielberg is no stranger to cinematic aliens after projects like “Close Encounters of The Third Kind,” “E.T.,” and the aforementioned remake of “War of The Worlds” led by Tom Cruise, which featured aliens obliterating Earth’s cities.
Another project that the filmmaker is working on is a new Frank Bullitt film that will star Bradley Cooper (“Maestro“) as the iconic San Francisco cop previously portrayed by the late Steve McQueen in the original beloved crime thriller from 1968. However, Variety seems to think the UFO movie might be next so the anticipated Cooper/Spielberg project, in the works for a few years now, may have to sit idle for the next little while.