Having been so prolific for so long, Steven Spielberg‘s career tends to go in fits and starts these days. The director has spent much of his career making a film every year (and sometimes even two, with a gap of more than a couple of years being quite rare, but it took him three years to follow up “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull” back in 2008, after a number of other projects fell through. Still, a flurry of activity followed, with “The Adventures Of Tintin,” “War Horse” and “Lincoln” all hitting theaters within a year, but another three year gap has followed the acclaimed latter film, as the great director has been cautious about picking his next project.
But the Bearded One has made his decision, as we’ve known for a little while, and now we know when we’ll be seeing the two new films, and they’ll be only a little more than six months apart. The as-yet-untitled Cold War Thriller, currently getting a script polish from the Coen Brothers, and is based loosely on the true story of James Donovan, an attorney who was sent to negotiate the release of a kidnapped American pilot, will hit theaters on October 16th, 2015, putting it head-to-head with Guillermo del Toro‘s “Crimson Peak.” Spielberg’s film will star Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance.
Meanwhile, the director will go straight from that to reteaming with his “E.T.” writer Melissa Mathison for a big-screen version of “The B.F.G.,” Roald Dahl’s tale of a boy and the titular Big Friendly Giant. There’s no casting yet announced for the project, which sees Spielberg returning to straight-up live-action kids fare for arguably the first time since “Hook,” but DreamWorks will release it on July 1, 2016. That’s the same date as Sony‘s “Angry Birds,” Warner Bros.‘ “Tarzan” and Fox‘s “Independence Day 2,” with an untitled Marvel movie coming from DreamWorks’ partner Disney the week after. Expect someone to blink before too long.
