Over the last six decades, Steven Spielberg has directed 34 films. And at 77 years old, Spielberg isn’t done yet. Via Variety, Spielberg’s next movie after 2022’s The Fabelmans will be an original UFO movie that he conceived. David Koepp is reportedly writing the script after previously collaborating with Spielberg on Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Variety’s report didn’t offer any specifics about Spielberg’s new UFO film, but it’s a subject matter that he has tackled before. Spielberg’s fourth film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, was a ponderous story about ordinary people who felt drawn to the site of an alien landing after experiencing fleeting glimpses of a UFO in the sky.
Spielberg’s most famous UFO-related movie was also one of his most successful: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. That film chronicled the title character’s time on Earth after he was accidentally left behind on Earth. E.T. befriended a young boy named Elliott (Henry Thomas) and his siblings, who attempted to help him contact his people and return home.
However, Spielberg’s most recent UFO-related film was 2005’s darker spin on H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, which featured Tom Cruise as a father desperately trying to protect his children during an alien invasion.
It’s too soon to say if Spielberg’s new UFO movie will revisit any of those ideas, or if it’s truly something different than his earlier films.
Image credit: Getty Images/Aaron Rapoport/Corbis
