A couple of months ago it was widely reported that Steven Spielberg had predicted that the superhero movie would soon go the way of the Western, sparking various big names to come out in defence of the genre.
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On the red carpet, Steven Spielberg mentioned that the premiere taking place in New York was meaningful to him and recalled that his last film, “Lincoln”, was screened at the New York Film Festival two years earlier. That crash, of a USA spy plane taking photos 70,000 feet above the U.S.S.R., is what gets Donovan involved in the overseas dealings; the US hopes to exchange the pilot, being held prisoner in Russian Federation, for a convicted Soviet spy whom Donovan defended steadfastly during his trial, as was, Donovan believed, his solemn civic duty. “I always wanted to tell the stories that really interested me in my personal life, which are stories about things that actually happened”.
The pair have been close friends for many years and collaborated on a number of movies and mini-series, most recently the upcoming “Bridge of Spies”, but their friendship only turned into a professional relationship when they approached each other about working on 1998’s “Saving Private Ryan”. The subject of Bridge of Spies, James Donovan, was perhaps a more minor hero than those two Great Men, but what he managed to do in late 1950s East Berlin was still pretty film worthy.
“Bridge of Spies” opens in theatres October 15.
“I play Peggy Donovan”, Lebling said. To play the street-smart but profoundly ethical Donovan, Spielberg thought of Hanks, who quickly signed on.
When I realized that this movie was a period drama, I became apprehensive because history has never been my forte and I feared that I would get lost in the historical references.
Spielberg added, “I didn’t say the film industry was ever going to end because of it. I was simply saying that I felt that that particular genre doesn’t have the legs or longevity of the Western, which was around since the beginning of film and only started to wither and shrivel in the sixties. But all the big nuts and bolts of the superstructure of the story did occur”.
She said her father had to “withstand a lot of criticism” in the process, but he felt it was part of the American tradition to give the man a defense.
“I think I want to be an actress”, she said. And yet that movie, which was essentially about the passing of an amendment, was so mesmerizing and compelling that it grossed nearly $300 million worldwide and won two Oscars (it was nominated for 10 others).
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His book, “Strangers on a Bridge”, was reissued this August.
