Mark your calendar, Steven Spielberg fans. THR reports that the American auteur’s next film will hit theaters on May 15, 2026, courtesy of Universal and Amblin Entertainment. That’s great news, but it opens up another question: which previously announced Spielberg project will the movie be?
There are two main options there: an original UFO film from Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp reported this April, or the long-gestating Frank Bullitt movie with Bradley Cooper set to star as the SF police detective. The likelier option? The latest Spielberg-Koepp collab, due to the pair’s previous success together and the fact that there have been no updates on Spielberg’s Bullitt film since November 2022.
Spielberg and Koepp have worked together four times before: on “Jurassic Park, “The Lost World,” “War Of The World,” and “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull.” All told, the global revenue of those films is in the billions, so no wonder Universal wants them working together again. If their new project together is Spielberg’s UFO movie, it’s an original event film Koepp will adapt into a screenplay.
So will this UFO pic be more like “War Of The Worlds” or Spielberg’s earlier alien event film, “Close Encounters Of The Third King“? Feel free to speculate, as plot details are currently under wraps. Whatever the movie ends up being, it’ll be Spielberg’s first film since 2022’s semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans.” That Universal release was another winner for the director, ratcheting up seven Oscar nods, although it didn’t win any.
A three-time Oscar winner, Spielberg remains one of the industry’s juggernauts at age 77. And with an early May 2026 release date, expect whatever this film is to be of blockbuster proportions, something Mr. Spielberg is quite adept at. Stay tuned for more news on this feature soon.