Spielberg Scandals
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Steven Spielberg
kgwrote-854-104240 — 9 years ago(January 11, 2017 01:18 AM)
I know that Spielberg was mad that the editor of Jaws got credit for saving the film and he (and Richard Dreyfus) helped reshape the legend that gave himself all the credit. He did the same thing with Duel, acting as if he hired Dennis Weaver when in fact Weaver was the tv star who chose Spielberg. Jaws owes much to John Williams score as well as Robert Shaw who was a writer in his own right.
JJ Abrams even said Spielberg came up with the "you are going to neeb68d a bigger boat" line even though it was attributed to Scheider as an ad-lib.
The story for ET was said to have come from Spielberg but years later it was revealed the idea was similar to a script circulated in Hollywood by Satyajit Ray.
Similarly he and Lucas got credit for creating Indiana Jones even though the character is cut and pasted with very little changes from Secret of the Incas.
Many know about his problems with Poltergeistnot just the Hooper situation but the fact that the script came from someone who sued and got a settlement (though his career went kaput afterwards).
There's also the Twilight Zone set deaths which are blamed on Landis for good reason, but Spielberg was the one who hired Landis.
Some others who may have faced career problems because of Spielberg
Sean Young said she was up for a part in a movie in the early 80s, but because she rejected the advances of a movie mogul, he tried to destroy her career.
What films was she up for but never got? One of them was the Marion role in Raiders.
Many years later, she was asked what an actress could do to get a career in Hollywood and she replied: "sleep with Spielberg?"
John Carpenter. It is assumed that the Thing died at the box office because everyone loved ET, but one has to wonder if Spielberg and studio friends may have done something to kill the rival alien film. Lack of advertising? Hard to be sure, I thought it interesting though that Carpenter did Starman which was said to be a project that the studio picked over ET.
Then there is Big Trouble in Little China which seems to have ended Carpenter's luck with the big studiosit was expected to be an Indiana Jones-style film. Not saying Spielberg did anything, but he did interfere with the distribution of
Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, which was supposed to be a summer release, but Spielberg used his influence to have it pushed to Fall so as not to compete with Men in Black.
How many other filmmakers used their influence to harm the career of another filmmaker? -
Ambedo — 9 years ago(January 11, 2017 06:51 PM)
Huh, I never knew about any of this. But knowing what it's like to be one of the 'elite' in anything (Hollywood included), Spielberg has to have his share of dirty secrets.
Terrence Malick (admittedly one of my favourite filmmakers) is known for cutting out a beep of actors in his films during the editing process. Specifically in The Thin Red Line, where it had gotten to the point where Sean Penn was promoting the film, giving interviews, ect and Malick had not yet told him the final cut only had 5 minutes of Penn.
On the same movie, he had a clause inserted into his contract to bar the producers from the set of the movie. I have no idea why he would do that though, considering that was an absolute betrayal of the very people that managed to raise his career from the grave after 20 years. Not to mention he got a whopping $52 Million to work with, exponentially larger than the $0.5 and $3.8 he had for his first films. Insane.
I think Tarantino has done some stuff? Not entirely sure. He gets a LOT of rabid hate though. -
James_Byrne — 9 years ago(January 14, 2017 05:17 AM)
wrote-854-104240
Spielberg, when asked where he got the inspiration for Indiana Jones, has never given any credit to the Heston movie SECRET OF THE INCAS in any interview, he only mentions 1940's serials and the Bogart classic TREASURE OF THE SIERRRA MADRE. -
TheLoneStranger — 9 years ago(January 14, 2017 08:40 AM)
Oooooooh, conspiracy theories! Let me grab my tin-foil hat!
Proof? Spielberg is one of the most openly collaborative filmmakers you can find in Hollywood. He once wore a T-Shirt on the set of Saving Private Ryan that said "I am not an auteur" because he didn't like the fact that his colleagues weren't being given enough credit. Nearly every interview I've seen or read of Spielberg shows him full of praise and appreciation for his collaborators, and his loyalty to his trusted editor, composer and cinematographer demonstrates how important his partnerships are to him.
Don't think Spielberg gave credit to Verna Fields or John Williams on Jaws? Why not look at his own words on the subject
"Verna was always in favor of less to be more. And I was trying to squeeze in that one more because it took me DAYS to get that one shot! So Im going back to, Im on a barge for two days trying to get the shark to look real, and the sad fact was that the shark would only look real in 36 frames and not 38 frames. And that 2 frame difference was the difference between something really scary, and something that looked like a great white floating turd. - Steven Spielberg.
"John Williams has made our movie more adventurous and gripping than I ever thought possible." Steven Spielberg on Jaws.
Think Jaws needed saving? Why not ask the co-screenwriter, Carl Gottlieb
"Speaking from first-hand knowledge and without denigrating Verna Fields's enormous contribution to "Jaws," that film didn't need saving. As the screen writer who was present on location and during post-production (I share screen credit with the novelist Peter Benchley), I remind you that the movie was made by a young, accomplished, confident Steven Spielberg, whose body of work speaks for itself and whose film-making skills were apparent in work (with other editors) that pre-dates "Jaws."
I remind Ms. Rochlin that every frame of film an editor cuts is conceived and shot elsewhere, by others. "Jaws" was the production of a fruitful and happy collaboration, and Steven Spielberg is the true auteur of that experience. As I wrote in "The 'Jaws' Log," the film is Steven's vision, and, to the best of my recollection, those of us who worked on it were pleased to help in its realization." - Carl Gottlieb
So you're using JJ Abrams' misremembered anecdote to attack Spielberg? SCANDAL! Let's ask Carl Gottlieb for the real story again
"[Richard] Zanuck and [David] Brown were very stingy producers, so everyone kept telling them, 'You're gonna need a bigger boat.' It became a catchphrase for anytime anything went wrong if lunch was late or the swells were rocking the camera, someone would say, 'You're gonna need a bigger boat.'"
Roy Scheider, who played Brody in the movie, ad-libbed the line at different points in his performance throughout filming. But the one reading that made it in to the final cut of the movie was after the suspenseful first look at the great white shark. Says Gottlieb, "It was so appropriate and so real and it came at the right moment, thanks to Verna Field's editing."
So? Lots of similar ideas occur at the same time without any contact between the originators. Spielberg's fascination with aliens goes back to when he was 17 years old and made his amateur extraterrestrial epic "Firelight". A decade after that came Close Encounters of the Third Kind. So the story, characters and themes of ET fit very neatly into Spielberg's already well-visited interests without the need to shout "copycat! copycat!" because of similarities to a script by Satyajit Ray.
But even if we accept that Spielberg used Ray's story as a basis for ET, the actual characters, events, themes, dynamics, rhythms, and emotions all come fr238om Spielberg's direction and Melissa Mathison's script. They're the real reason for the success of ET, not the story. I'm pretty sure I could rewrite my own version of Great Expectations, that doesn't mean it would be any good!
To me the character of Indiana Jones wears his influences on his sleeve; everything from Zorro to Casablanca to Lawrence of Arabia to Gunga Din to5b4, yes, Secret of the Incas. There has never been any secret to this; Lucas' express purpose was to reinvent the old action-adventure serials of his youth so it's not a scandal to see similarities to his obvious inspirations. And, again, I draw you to my previous point about ET, that being that it's the clear filmmaking talent, writing, fun and excitement which led to the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark, not the story by itself. -
Cognoscente — 4 months ago(November 24, 2025 11:10 AM)
Scandalous:
https://popcultmaster.substack.com/p/unadulterated