Steven Spielberg Eyes Directing ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘West Side Story’

Steven Spielberg, who has no idea how to take a vacation, is looking to schedule his next projects before Ready Player One comes out. Indiana Jones 5 and his West Side Story remake are reportedly next up for the legendary filmmaker.

Deadline reported Friday that Spielberg is considering directing Indy first. He is considering to quickly follow that up with his next project, which might be the West Side Story remake.

After he makes the Indiana Jones movie, Spielberg is hoping to quickly jump to West Side Story. Spielberg told The Hollywood Reporter in 2016, he has been dreaming of adapting the iconic Broadway musical “for decades.”

Additionally, back in August 2014, Spielberg told Good Morning America that he was thinking about West Side Story, after Deadline reported about the project a few months earlier.

“Well you know something, West Side Story is one of my favourite Broadway musicals and one of the greatest pieces of musical literature, my goodness, one of the greatest scores and some of the greatest lyrics ever written for a musical so just let me put it this way: it’s on my mind,” Spielberg told GMA at the time.

Spielberg’s remake will be written by Tony Kushner, who worked with Spielberg on Munich and Lincoln.

West Side Story is one of the most beloved Broadway musicals of all time, with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Arthur Laurents. After opening on Broadway in 1957, director Robert Wise and choreographer Jerome Robbins brought the musical to the screen in 1961.

The film also won 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for George Chakiris and Best Supporting Actress for Jerome Robbins.

As for the new Indiana Jones movie, it has been coming together since 2013, when Disney acquired the rights to make new movies about the world’s most famous fictional archaeologist from Paramount.

The franchise was created by Spielberg and George Lucas, and owned by LucasFilm, which is now owned by Disney. However, the first four films were produced with Paramount, which will keep the distribution rights to those movies. Paramount also gets some financial participation from any new Indy movies.

In March 2016, Disney officially announced a fifth Indy movie, with Harrison Ford reprising the title role. Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall were set to produce. David Koepp, who worked with Spielberg on Jurassic Park and the much-maligned Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, wrote the script.

Disney initially hoped to get the film in theaters in 2019, but it soon became clear that was not going to happen. So, the studio rescheduled it for July 10, 2020.

Spielberg just released The Post. His next film, Ready Player One, opens on March 30.

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