Coming off his successful biopic on Abraham Lincoln, Steven Spielberg was going to head back into major tentpole territory with the science-fiction blockbuster Robopocalypse. But then the project hit a halt to “rethink” the script, and despite the director’s insistence that things will move forward this summer, we’re aren’t quite sold, so we’re eager to hear what Spielberg will be tackling next.
Picked up at a talk by the India Times, the filmmaker revealed his plans to produce a new India-set film, which would mark his return to the area after both Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom. Unfortunately there are no script details, but there is a finished draft that DreamWorks and Reliance Entertainment will make together, which sees the film on the India-Pakistan border in Kashmir. Expect news soon as Spielberg says a director, cast and location search is coming together.
We’ve also got an update on the Martin Luther King, Jr. film that was first unveiled back in 2009. Spielberg revealed that he “wouldn’t call it a biopic, it’s more a story of King and the movement and also about how his admiration for Mahatma Gandhi helped to shape his moral core.” He added, “about the slavery issue, it’s very hard for me to wrap my mind around how a group of people could ever—for profit or power—enslave another group of people.” Last we heard Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) was behind the script, so hopefully some cast and crew will come together soon.
Lastly, the issue of a sequel to The Adventures of Tintin has been one swirling with many rumors and promises from those involved and Spielberg has now weighed in. Backing up what Peter Jackson said during his press tour for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Spielberg confirmed his plans to produce a Tintin sequel, with Jackson in the director’s chair this time around. With a completed script, they hope to kick off performance capture by the end of 2013 and added, “don’t hold me to it, but we’re hoping the film will come out around Christmas-time in 2015.”
That would mean four consecutive Jackson blockbusters in theaters at the end of the calendar year, following his Hobbit trilogy. Spielberg also wouldn’t confirm which of Herge’s books would be the source material, but they plan to combine two and he even hinted that The Blue Lotus could be source for the third film in the Tintin franchise. Check out the entire 30-minute conversation held last night between Spielberg and actor Amitabh Bachchan below (via MoiFightClub) as we wait to hear what Spielberg will actually be directing next.