I came across something today that is endlessly fascinating, a “Siskel & Ebert” television special from 1990 where Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel sit down with Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. The discussion ranges from their careers, where they’re going, where they’ve been, what they expect from the movies in the future, film preservation and the coming of high definition television introduced by Siskel saying, “You add a good sound system as well and some people may never want to go to a movie theater again.”
At the time, Scorsese’s GoodFellas was the next film coming from the trio and he makes mention of his want to make The Age of Innocence, which would be released three years later. Spielberg’s next film would be Hook (1991) and even talks of wanting to direct a Howard Hughes movie, which, of course, Spielberg would never make, but Scorsese would tackle in The Aviator fourteen years later. As for Lucas, he was planning Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which wouldn’t hit screens for another nine years and even Ebert says to him that American Graffiti is essentially a film that starts a career path Lucas never followed.
On top of all that, the video comes equipped with with “Star Tours”, “Indiana Jones” and “Muppets” promos from Walt Disney World and Pillsbury brownie commercials.
Seeing how this is a Daily Journal entry, I’ve added about another 500+ words, commentary and details from the chat for paid subscribers only, which includes Lucas almost coming up with the idea for YouTube and Spielberg believing no new technology would come around to change the medium.
The subscriber-only comments are just below the special, which can be watched directly below.
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Probably the most amazing aspect of the entire thing is what they get “right” and what they get “wrong” when it comes to the future of movies and even their own career, whether it be the idealistic nature of Spielberg, the frank approach of Scorsese or the tech geek that is Lucas as he clearly knew what was coming down the pipeline in very fascinating ways.
On top of saying he’ll never make an E.T. sequel, Spielberg declares a lack of interest in producing a lot of movies, saying if that were true he’d be running a studio right now. Spielberg is now one of the co-founders of DreamWorks and is credited as a producer on 142 titles on IMDb.
Scorsese talks about what he declares his inability to make a movie that would gross the kind of money a Spielberg film brings in. “It’s difficult,” he said, “and that’s why I think I’ll need some names to get the certain stories I want to get made, because the stories are, in now way going to aim for that level of $200 million receipts.”
The talk turns to film preservation and Spielberg mentions how Jaws was in bad shape at the time. There’s even talk of preserving films on videotape… VIDEOTAPE!
When it turns to the HD TV conversation Spielberg says that once that comes around “we might have to start thinking about different kinds of formatting of the motion picture experience — larger theaters, bigger screens — first and foremost, better stories.” Lucas thinks some movies will be made specifically for home, others for the theater and sells the “group” experience of seeing a movie in a theater, something many people seem to hate the most about today’s theaters.
Then Ebert asks, “In the age of high definition television do you think movies will tend to be more spectacular?” Lucas’ answer, “I think the larger, more spectacular ones will end up in the theaters, the more personal ones will end up on the screen.” There’s even a joke from Lucas regarding “America’s Funniest Home Videos”, which is essentially his prediction of the coming of YouTube, though not specifically.
When Siskel asks Spielberg about a possible invention that could arrive in the ’90s that would make films better his answer is fascinating:
No, I think motion pictures are a very unique medium. Film, cameras and everything we have right now is all we need. I really believe that, all we need. Can you invent a new kind of bat to hit a baseball further without cheating? There are certain forms in our cultural, in sports certainly, where the sport has been there for a long time and doesn’t need improvement. Football doesn’t need a replay judge. I think that’s a real burden of technology on human errors and judgment calls, whether right or wrong, but films have a camera, we’ve got the lab to process the film, we’ve got the lights, no, I think we’ve got all that we need.
Lucas, of course, disagrees.
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