STEVEN SPIELBERG
DIRECTOR / PRODUCER / BUSINESS MAN

     Steven Spielberg is one of the biggest names in Hollywood as a director and producer. He has spent his career doing feature films that have pushed Special Effects to the next level. 

     Being born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1946, he spent his youth making amateur films as a hobby. After graduating from high school he attended California State University at Long Beach. In 1969 his entered a 24 minute short in the Atlanta Film Festival. It was so well received that Universal Studios gave Spielberg a seven year contract to direct television shows. This made him the youngest director ever to receive a long term deal with a major studio. 

     His first television was to direct the pilot for Night Gallery, which turned out to be a huge success and lead to many other prime-time hits including Columbo and Marcus Welby.  Spielberg began doing television movies as well. Duel was his biggest telefilm success which aired in 1972. 

     In 1974 he finally moved to feature films with the feature Sugerland Express and then broke out in 1975 with JAWS. Jaws was critically acclaimed and a monster at the box office chewing up an impressive $260 million. The films production cost was a mere $8.6 million to create. A large sum at the time. (Star Wars was done in 1977 for just $10 million)  

    Steven Spielberg's library is more extensive than almost any other director in the business. When you have Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1941, Indiana Jones Trilogy, Shindlers List, E.T., Hook, and Jurassic Park I & II on your resume that puts you on a special list. 

     Following Jurassic Park Spielberg started his own entertainment studio, Dreamworks SKG. He started the business with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffin, thus the SKG in the companies title. 

      The Dreamworks production company has done The Peacemaker, Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, Mouse Hunt, Deep Impact, Small Soldiers, Antz, Taken (scifi channel mini-series), Men In Black II, Shrek, Evolution, Mask of Zorro, and a few others. 

     Steven Spielberg is slowly moving towards being a better producer than director. His last three directed features have not done well at the box office. The three would be Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can. Artificial Intelligence, also known as A.I., was just plain awful. It was the most depressing film I have ever seen. The film was so bad I was ready to start slicin' and dicin' on my wrists after viewing it. Thank goodness there weren't any knives available at the time. What a piece of masterful crap! The one time hit after hit director has become a hit or miss. Saving Private Ryan was awesome, but were followed up with the three previously mentioned box office drags. 

     On the Producing side of the business he has had hits with two television mini-series in HBO's "Band of Brothers" and the Sci-Fi Channel's "Taken". He also recently produced Jurassic Park III and will again produce the franchises fourth installment. Men in Black II was a successful producing gig even though the film wasn't good, and the mega-hit feature Shrek. 

     George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are good friends and have worked closely together on a few projects. They will be teaming up to do the fourth Indiana Jones film. Lucas wants the film shot on digital media and Spielberg is a dedicated film man. But he has already reported that if Lucas wants it on digital media, he'll do it that way. 

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