Some fun casting news for a Friday afternoon. Two directors will be on the set of Steven Spielberg’s upcoming family drama, “The Fabelmans,” but only one of them will be behind it. Variety reveals that surrealist filmmaker David Lynch has joined the cast that already includes Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Paul Dano, Gabriel LaBelle, and Julia Butters.
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“The Fabelmans” is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama film co-written by Spielberg and his “West Side Story” screenwriter Tony Kushner (who also wrote “Munich”). It’s also loosely based on Spielberg’s childhood growing up in Arizona. So who will Lynch play?
According to the trade, “his role remains a closely guarded secret,” which is interesting since most of the roles in the film aren’t super exciting and are all based on Spielberg’s family members, mom, dad, siblings, etc.
Williams plays the fictional mom, Rogen the uncle, Dano the dad, and Gabriel LaBelle plays what sounds like the main character in Sammy Fabelman. Judd Hirsch, Chloe East, Oakes Fegley, Gabriel Bateman are also among the cast.
Lynch and Spielberg are obviously both giants of American cinema, legends in their own right, but their paths have rarely crossed before, and this is their first collaboration of any kind. Clearly, Lynch is on the opposite end of the spectrum regarding the type of cinema he makes. Spielberg is one of the premier makers of both critically-acclaimed dramas and escapist fare, while Lynch has been the premier makers of strange, surreal, and haunting cinema, including acclaimed, and still-weird TV works like “Twin Peaks.”
Could Lynch be portraying one of the famed filmmakers Spielberg met over the years? Extremely ambitious even as an adolescent, there are many stories of a young Spielberg sneaking onto film lots and meeting legends of that era. A strong bet would be John Ford, who Spielberg famously met at the age of 15 and has a distinctive twang and Mid-Western sounding voice like Lynch’s eccentric warble. Time will tell. “The Fablemans” opens November 23, 2022.