It starts with the writer-it's a familiar dictum, but somehow it keeps getting forgotten along the way. No film-maker, irrespective of his electronic bag of tricks, can ever afford to forget his commitment to the written word.
Steven SpielbergRead
The only time I have a good hunch the audience is going to be there is when I make the sequel to 'Jurassic Park' or I make another Indiana Jones movie. I know I've got a good shot at getting an audience on opening night. Everything else that is striking out into new territory is a crap shoot.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Success in film often depends on familiarity and brand recognition, especially for sequels.
In this quote, Steven Spielberg reflects on the unpredictability of creating new films compared to the assured success of sequels to beloved franchises like 'Jurassic Park' and 'Indiana Jones'. He acknowledges that while original works may be innovative and exciting, they come with a level of uncertainty regarding audience reception, contrasting them with established stories that already have a loyal fanbase.
Themes
SuccessAudienceSequelFilmCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
When discussing the film industry at a seminar.
More from Steven Spielberg
All quotes →When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it's you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself.
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I just had a crazy, wild imagination all my life, and science fiction is the greatest outlet for me.
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From a very young age, my parents taught me the most important lesson of my whole life: They taught me how to listen. They taught me how to listen to everybody before I made up my own mind. When you listen, you learn. You absorb like a sponge - and your life becomes so much better than when you are just trying to be listened to all the time.
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I wanted to do another movie that could make us laugh and cry and feel good about the world. I wanted to do something else that could make us smile. This is a time when we need to smile more and Hollywood movies are supposed to do that for people in difficult times.
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There are so many rumours about so many of us in the public eye. Sometimes it's too hard to deny what is not true.
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