Steven Spielberg’s Covid ‘extinction’ fear drove him to make new film
Steven Spielberg says the Covid pandemic pushed him to make his new film as he thought it could be an “extinction-level event”.
The director, 76, said he was so petrified the outbreak could wipe out humanity he felt he needed to make a movie he felt he had to get out of his system.
He was quoted by the Daily Star newspaper on Tuesday (17.01.23) saying about creating his latest film ‘The Fabelmans’: “I was terrified (Covid) was an end-of-days, and epic-level event, I mean an extinction-level event, that was happening to the world.
“If I got the chance to make one more movie, it was going to be this story.
“By the time I had serious discussions about writing this (‘The Fabelmans’), we’d lost 250,000 Americans to Covid.
“All the experts that were coming out and the denial from the White House that this wasn’t so bad, it was just like a passing flu epidemic.
“I really thought we were not heading in a good direction and this was not going to end well for many of us.
“And that just got me thinking about telling a story that has been on my mind. All my life I’ve thought about this.”
‘The Fabelmans’, for which Steven has been awarded a Best Director Golden Globe, is the semi-autobiographical story of a marriage break-up between Mitzi (played by Michelle Williams) and Burt Fabelman (Paul Dano) seen through the eyes of their film-mad son Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle.)
It opens with Sammy being taken by his parents to the cinema, a moment in Steven’s life that sparked his obsession with film.
Last week’s 80th annual Golden Globes also saw ‘The Fabelmans’ awarded Best Motion Picture – Drama.
