"Lincoln" producer Kathleen Kennedy is excited about the movie. Of course she is.
ComingSoon spoke to longtime Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg’s longtime producer, at an event celebrating a the 30th anniversary of “E.T.” and the October 9th Blu-ray release of the classic movie. Needless to say, though, more pressing subjects came up.
Here’s what Kennedy had to say about the long-aborning “Jurassic Park” sequel:
“Writing, writing, writing. It’s really hard to keep these things going when there’s an expectation and a desire by the public and the audience to keep certain franchises going. As filmmakers, we often sit there going, ‘Okay. We have to answer the question, ‘Why do another one?” If you can’t answer that question, you shouldn’t be doing it. It’s tough. We’re trying to come up with a story that makes sense and isn’t going to disappoint people and is, hopefully, going to get people excited and reinvigorate the franchise. We’ve got to start with a script and the story.”
Recent word had Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) working on the script. This is taking so long that it almost makes more sense to remake the original, rather than struggle with a wavering sequel idea that probably never will be as good as the source material.
As for Spielberg’s “Lincoln,” which debuts in November, Kennedy said:
“[T]his is one of those movies where, unless the right elements came together in the right way [it wouldn't work],” she explains. “Daniel Day-Lewis being the perfect example. It’s like he was born to play this role. I’m not sure what we would have done [if he hadn't signed on]. He’s absolutely extraordinary. I’ve never been involved with a movie where, when I saw it for the first time, even being involved in making it, I thought, ‘What a strange feeling. It’s like we literally got the opportunity to go back in time and had this glimpse of actually seeing President Lincoln and how he might have operated. In this case, it’s a very specific moment in his legacy and an event he’s trying to deal with very close to the end of his life. You feel extraordinarly privileged to have this moment in time with him. He’s just so real in his performance.”
I love Daniel Day-Lewis and expect him to be fine in the role, but I admit I wasn’t exactly knocked out by the trailer. I’ll remain optimistic, though.
Kennedy also said an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “The BFG” is “pretty far along” and it’s “live action.” “E.T.” screenwriter Melissa Matheson is working on that one.
And that’s it in Spielberg/Kennedy news today.
