Tony Kushner: Last News

There was something particularly nerve-racking about playing a young Steven Spielberg in The Fabelmans, the director’s semi-autobiographical movie base on his own family and upbringing. For starters, star Gabriel LaBelle said during an appearance at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles awards-season event that he never actually sat down with the director to get the 411 on what Spielberg was like as a young kid.

Universal Pictures is giving Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans a platform release starting with four locations in NYC (Lincoln Square, Union Square) and LA (The Grove, Century City) with a robust media campaign aimed at cinephiles, but also capitalizing on the broad appeal of a Spielberg production, testament to unusual pedigree of the semiautobiographical film.

BAFTA has set Black Panther director Ryan Coogler to deliver this year’s prestigious David Lean Lecture.

Michelle Williams will be honored with a Performer Tribute during the 32nd annual Gotham Awards, taking place live and in-person on November 28, at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. 

Michaela Zee editor The American Film Institute has announced that the world premiere of “Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me” is set to open the 36th edition of AFI Fest on Nov. 2. “AFI is proud to launch AFI Fest 2022 with ‘Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me,’ a film as profoundly powerful as it is personal,” AFI President and CEO Bob Gazzale said in a statement. “Selena is a global force in art and entertainment, and we are honored to partner with her, Alek and Apple to shine a light upon her journey in this beautifully crafted celebration of optimism, vulnerability and hopefulness.” Directed by Alek Keshishian (“Madonna: Truth or Dare”), the documentary explores Gomez’s rise to stardom as an actress and singer, along with the personal crises she’s endured throughout her life.

Steven Spielberg has described his semi-autobiographical picture The Fabelmans, delving into the teenage experiences that led him into filmmaking, as the most “daunting” project of his six-decade, blockbuster filmmaking career.

Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, the director’s semi-autobiographical movie based on his own family and upbringing, has released its official trailer.

Manori Ravindran International Editor Steven Spielberg has said that mining his family history to make “The Fabelmans” was a “very daunting experience” that was at times “very, very hard to get through.” The iconic filmmaker’s latest project world premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday night to raves from critics and largely favorable reviews. The semi-autobiographical movie, which is already being tipped as an Oscar contender, tells the story of Sam Fabelman, a young boy who falls in love with cinema, but finds himself fighting family turmoil to keep his dream alive. In a so-called press conference on Sunday, that was effectively a Q&A with TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey (the festival did not take any questions in the room from the gathered journalists, who had to submit questions almost 24 hours in advance), the “Jaws” director said he thought making the movie “would be a lot easier than it turned out to be because I know the material and I’ve known the characters for my entire life.”

“The Fabelmans” made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday, and a new trailer offers a glimpse of the latest film from acclaimed director Steven Spielberg.

Carson Burton Steven Spielberg is taking audiences on an intimate stroll through his childhood in the first trailer for “The Fabelmans.”The semi-autobiographical film follows the formative years of a young man as he discovers a shattering family secret, causing him to use movies as a means to help him see the truth about others and himself. Spielberg based the film on his own early years in Arizona and co-wrote the script with “Lincoln,” “Munich” and “West Side Story” screenwriter Tony Kushner.On Saturday, “The Fabelmans” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, earning a standing ovation in the crowd of movie lovers, who cheered loudly for the Oscar-winning auteur as he made his first appearance at the Canadian gathering. 

There is definitely a trend of late for film directors to take a look in thinly disguised cinematic memoirs of their early influences that shaped the artist and person they have become. Kenneth Branagh with Belfast and Paolo Sorrentino with The Hand Of God did it last year. Of course there is Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, others over the years. Sam Mendes, while not drawing a portrait of his younger self revisits the movie palaces of his youth in another 2022 offering, Empire Of Light, which premiered last weekend at Telluride and will also hit the Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF is also where the man I recently described as the GOAT, Steven Spielberg, has chosen to debut his own story where the names have been changed but the story is  clearly his. The Fabelmans basically chronicling his early Jewish family life and infatuation with making movies  had its World Premiere Saturday night, the first of Spielberg’s directed movies ever to premiere at a film festival. This one seems entirely appropriate, and it has been gestating in the director’s head ever since he and his co-writer Tony Kushner started kicking it around during the making of Lincoln over a decade ago. He says he finally made it primarily as a way to bring his late parents Leah and Arnold (to whom the film is dedicated) somehow back to his life. Movies can do that, and no one knows it better than Steven Spielberg.

Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans is among the films making its world premiere on day three of the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada.Directed by Spielberg from a script he co-wrote with Tony Kushner, the acclaimed filmmaker was on hand with wife Kate Capshaw for the red carpet buildup before the debut showing at the Princess of Wales Theatre.The main cast were also all there to celebrate the premiere, which includes the likes of Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen and Gabriel LaBelle. Iconic: Steven Spielberg joined many of the stars, including leading lady Michelle Williams, for the world premiere of The Fabelmans at the Toronto International Film Festival on SaturdaySpielberg, 75, stepped out in front of the sea of photographers in a grey three-piece suit that he matched with brown leather shoes.After striking a few poses solo, he then had his wife, actress Kate Capshaw joined him for a few moments.

Clayton Davis Steven Spielberg brought his semi-autobiographical film, “The Fabelmans,” to the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 10, his first feature ever to debut at TIFF. To say that Spielberg is performing at the top of his game is no hyperbole. This dramatic opus, which pulls at the heartstrings, could bring Spielberg his third directing statuette (after “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan”), and maybe his second for best picture (after “Schindler’s List”). “The Fabelmans” is the story of Sam Fabelman, a young boy who falls in love with cinema, but finds himself fighting family turmoil to keep his dream alive. Spielberg’s direction is the glue that holds “The Fabelmans” together, and the film touches on many of his landmark styles, nodding to “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Saving Private Ryan” and more.

Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” will close out the 2022 AFI Fest, the American Film Institute announced Tuesday. “The Fabelmans,” which has been touted as Spielberg’s most personal film to date, stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle and Judd Hirsch in a story inspired by Spielberg’s own childhood. The film follows the formative years of a young man as he discovers a shattering family secret, causing him to use movies as a means to help him see the truth about others and himself. The ensemble cast for “The Fabelmans” includes Jeannie Berlin, Julia Butters, Robin Bartlett and Keeley Karsten, with music by John Williams. Janusz Kaminski serves as cinematographer, and the film is edited by Michael Kahn and Sarah Broshar. Production design is helmed by Rick Carter, and the costume design is overseen by Mark Bridges.

Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans will make its U.S. premiere at AFI Fest 2022 — closing out the festival at the TCL Chinese Theatre on November 6. The latest film from the AFI Life Achievement Award recipient is set to make its world premiere this month at the Toronto Film Festival, arriving in theaters beginning November 11.

Steven Spielberg’s The Fablemans, the director’s semi-autobiographical movie based on his own family and upbringing, will world premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. The 47th edition of TIFF runs September 8-18.

Zack Sharf Steven Spielberg is set to make his first ever appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival with the world premiere of “The Fabelmans.” The Oscar winner’s latest is billed as a “deeply personal portrait of 20th Century American childhood.” Spielberg based the film on his own early years and co-wrote the script with his “Lincoln,” “Munich” and “West Side Story” screenwriter Tony Kushner.The official synopsis for the movie from TIFF reads: “‘The Fabelmans’ is a coming-of-age story about a young man’s discovery of a shattering family secret and an exploration of the power of movies to help us see the truth about each other and ourselves.”“The Fabelmans” ensemble cast includes Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle, Jeannie Berlin, Julia Butters, Robin Bartlett, Keeley Karsten and Judd Hirsch. Spielberg tapped Williams to play a character in the film based on his mother.

UPDATED, 3:13 p.m.: Universal Pictures announced today that Steven Spielberg’s latest film The Fabelmans will open exclusively in L.A. and NY on Friday, November 11—expanding on the film’s previously announced release date of November 23rd.

Sharon D. Clarke lit up the carpet in a vibrant dress while attending the 2022 Tony Awards in New York City on Sunday with her wife Susie McKenna.The 55-year-old English actress wore a floor-length, long-sleeved gown with bright floral and geometric patterns upon arrival for the 75th annual awards ceremony at Radio City Music Hall.She had her dark hair up in an intertwined bun and down in long multiple braids.

Sharon D Clarke’s performance of the showstopping musical number “Lot’s Wife” in the second act of Caroline, Or Change will almost certainly be among the Broadway highlights weighed in the minds of Tony Award voters when they cast their ballots for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical. The number, and the performance, are harrowing: Clarke’s character Caroline, the Black maid in an early 1960s Southern White Jewish household, has reached a breaking point of sorts, her years of struggle and loss erupting in one exchange of words with the young Jewish boy she’s all but raised, and the words of hate and cruelty that emerge from deep recesses of characters that had long shared real moments of connection and affection have shaken Caroline to her core.