By James Mottram
“Never,” Steven Spielberg replies when asked at The Cannes Film Festival if he’d ever make a Star Wars film. “George Lucas asked me that question, and we talked about it. I did work a little bit on Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith with George though. George talked to me about making a Star Wars film a long time ago, and I said, ‘Look George, you make movies that take place in outer space. I make movies on Earth where outer space comes to me. That’s the difference between us.’”
The famous galaxy far, far away, however, is not the only other piece of cinematic territory that Spielberg is unwilling to visit. When asked if he’d ever take a tenure in The Marvel Cinematic Universe, the response was equally negative. “I’ve just never been a big fan of superheroes,” the director says. “I just haven’t. I’ve been a big fan of characters who find things that we all have and they just find a little bit more of it in the moment when it’s needed…as opposed to having to go into a phone booth to change your clothes to save someone’s life. I don’t scoff at it though…I sound like I’m scoffing at it, but I’m not. I love certain movies. I love the Dick Donner Superman movies. I love Chris Nolan’s The Dark Knight. I love Tim Burton’s first Batman. I love the very first Iron Man film. I go to those movies. But there are so many of them that it makes my head spin! One seems very much like the one that came out a month ago. I have trouble separating the superhero movies.”
Another part of the problem, it would appear, is the current spate of superhero movies’ tendency to offer up darker, more nihilistic cinematic worlds. “I can only speak for myself,” Spielberg says. “I don’t want to be a film critic and start reviewing darkness, or why darkness is interesting. There was no darkness in one of my favourite superhero movies, and the reason that I liked it so much was because it was tongue in cheek. That film was Guardians Of The Galaxy. It was so tongue in cheek that it felt like a breath of fresh air. It’s optimistic, and it’s not cynical, you know? It doesn’t take itself too seriously. We made The BFG as an antidote to cynicism. It was one of the reasons why I made the film. There’s so much cynicism in the world today, and there’s so much division in the world…more division than I can even remember in my lifetime. The BFG was the antidote to that.”
The BFG is in cinemas now. And make sure to check out our interviews with stars, Mark Rylance, Jemaine Clement, Rebecca Hall, and Ruby Barnhill.
