The matter became so volatile that the Directors Guild investigated and ultimately declared Hooper the director.
Hooper did agree with me that the issue had been “manufactured.”
“I just don’t know who the manufacturer is,” he said disingenuously. If an outsider knew the studio was spreading the rumors about Spielberg’s input, certainly the nominal director of the film knew as well.
One rumor Hooper was willing to spike was that he was yanked off the film after principal photography had been completed and that he was shut out of the postproduction process. The rumor had a reliable source: Craig T. Nelson, the father in the film and current star of television’s Coach, publicly stated that Hooper had not been allowed into the editing room.
“I was in the editing room for ten weeks. There’s very little difference between my cut and Steven’s. I like the final cut very much,” Hooper told me, but refused to say how his cut differed from the final one. “The differences were just too minor,” he insisted.
Ever the diplomat, Hooper said without much enthusiasm, “I found it a very good experience working with Steven. He wanted input—absolutely. Change that ‘absolutely’ to a ‘yes.’ ”
On June 9, 1982, Spielberg took out a full-page ad in Daily Variety. The letter, on Spielberg’s personal stationery, said:
Dear Tobe,
Some of the press has misunderstood the rather unique, creative relationship which you and I shared throughout the making of Poltergeist.
I enjoyed your openness in allowing me, as a producer and a writer, a wide berth for creative involvement, just as I know you were happy with the freedom you had to direct Poltergeist so wonderfully.
Through the screenplay, you accepted a vision of this very intense movie, and as the director, you delivered the goods. You performed responsibly and professionally throughout, and I want to wish you great success on your next project. Let’s hope that Poltergeist brings as much pleasure to the general public as we experienced in our mutual effort.
Sincerely,
Steven Spielberg
That letter could be interpreted as an example of Spielberg’s good-hearted generosity or his extreme disingenuousness. The latter interpretation gained credibility from the rumor that the letter was part of a secret Directors Guild settlement that allowed Spielberg’s name to be featured in movie trailers in letters twice as big as Hooper’s. That plus $15,000. Not much compensation if Hooper was indeed hung out to dry by the studio and his producer.
We will never know who actually directed Poltergeist, but if the following work of the two men is any indication, Poltergeist was either just a lucky fluke for Hooper or Spielberg did indeed direct the film.
Poltergeist was a tour de force, brilliantly crafted, subtly humorous, and scary. Spielberg would continue his string of popcorn classics with Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Whither Tobe Hooper?
On the strength of Poltergeist’s performance, Hooper lined up another big-budget, special-effects extravaganza called Lifeforce. It was supposed to be a terrifying story about vampires who suck the life force out of their victims. The film was so incompetently made that audiences hooted with laughter at scenes that were supposed to be as frightening as anything in Poltergeist.
As one industry source said, “If Hooper actually directed both films, his body must have been possessed by a poltergeist when he made one of them because the same man couldn’t have made both.”
As a high school student in Phoenix, Arizona, Spielberg was already directing films on his father’s 8mm camera. He specialized in devising new ways to terrorize the stars of these early films—his three younger sisters.
SETH POPPEL/SHOOTING STAR
Spielberg took on a rather formidable project for his debut—directing Joan Crawford in the 1969 premiere episode of Night Gallery when he was only twenty-one. “It was like pitching to Hank Aaron your first time in the game,” he said.
PHOTOFEST
After his start in episodic television, Spielberg was given the opportunity to direct a television movie, Duel. The film, starring Dennis Weaver, was a great success, both on television and in its European theatrical release where it earned more than $9 million and numerous awards.
PHOTOFEST
Goldie Hawn and William Atherton hijack a highway patrol car to rescue their children in Sugarland, Texas, in Spielberg’s first feature-length film, Sugarland Express. Although a box office disappointment, the 1974 film was highly praised as a directorial debut.
COURTESY UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Although now considered almost a visual cliché, the image of dozens of squad cars in pursuit was pioneered by Spielberg in Sugarland Express.
COURTESY UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Steven, his parents, and future wife Amy Irving revel in the success of Jaws at the 1976 Screen Director’s Guild Awards. The film catapulted Spielberg into the big time both by shattering box office records and earning high critical acclaim.
ARCHIVE PHOTOS/FOTOS INTERNATIONAL
Beachgoers are attacked by the infamous shark in Jaws. The mechanical shark used in shooting, nicknamed Bruce, cost more than $1 million—and a lot of headaches. Aside from constant technical difficulties with Bruce’s electronics, the first Bruce sank after only three days of shooting.
COURTESY UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Spielberg relaxes on the deck of the Orca, the ship used in the filming of Jaws, with great white shark hunters Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider, and Robert Shaw.
COURTESY UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Both Jaws star Roy Scheider and Spielberg attended the 1976 Golden Globe Awards. Composer John Williams came away with the film’s only award for best musical score.
ARCHIVE PHOTOS/FOTOS INTERNATIONAL
Close friends and Hollywood megamoguls Spielberg and Star Wars director George Lucas appear together at the 1978 Director’s Guild awards dinner. The pair conceived of the Indiana Jones trilogy on a beach in Hawaii.
ARCHIVE PHOTOS/FOTOS
After appearing in Spielberg’s first blockbuster hit, Richard Dreyfuss returned to work with Spielberg on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The two had become friends on the set of Jaws, and despite contract disputes on Close Encounters they’ve maintained their friendship for more than two decades.
COURTESY COLUMBIA PICTURES
By 1978 Spielberg was on a roll after the huge success of Jaws and Close Encounters. His next film, 1941, may have registered the performance anxiety brought on by his new reputation.
ARCHIVE PHOTOS/LONDON EXPRESS
Comedian John Belushi starred in Spielberg’s first big-budget bomb, 1941, a black comedy about an imagined Japanese WWII attack on Los Angeles. Although the film “flopped” by Spielberg standards, it still grossed $90 million, turning a $20 million profit.
COURTESY UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
Steven and his first wife, actress Amy Irving, met in 1976. The tempestuous relationship would lead to a 1980 breakup, a reunion in 1983, a wedding two years later, and a divorce four years after that.
FRANK EDWARDS/ARCHIVE PHOTOS
Spielberg conceived of the Indiana Jones films as a tribute to the Saturday afternoon serial movies from his childhood. The character has provided one of Harrison Ford’s most popular and enduring roles. In fact, the actor has already signed on for Indy 4.
Although the production of Raiders of the Lost Ark, starring Harrison Ford and Karen Allen, came in under budget at only $20 million—a cut-rate item by Spielberg standards—studio executives still worried about whether it would bring in the $50 million necessary to finish in the black. They needn’t have worried: Raiders would gross more than $360 million!
Spielberg with his most enduringly popular character, E.T. The audioanimatronic creature, designed by Italy’s Carlo Rambaldi, cost $1.5 million. The puppet’s lifelike mannerisms had some critics suggesting it deserved a Best Actor nomination.
Nine-year-old actor Henry Thomas stepped into the crucial role o
f E.T.’s earthling pal, Elliot, after Spielberg had already auditioned more than 300 kids.
The image of E.T. and Elliot pedalling across the moon was perhaps the most spectacular and memorable of Spielberg’s 1982 blockbuster. The movie remained the highest-grossing of all time until it was toppled from first place by another Spielberg hit, Jurassic Park.
Spielberg and then-girlfriend Amy Irving take young Drew Barrymore, co-star of E.T., on a shopping trip in 1984. After working with so many children on the set of E.T., Spielberg said, “I have this deep yearning now to become a father.”
BOB SCOTT/FOTOS INTERNATIONAL
Steven Spielberg—the quintessential Hollywood director. The King of Hollywood has repeatedly broken box office records with films like Jaws, E.T., and Jurassic Park. He may be poised to break another: rumors place Spielberg as the potential director for both Star Wars 4 and Jurassic Park 2.
Scatman Crothers (right) appears in the Spielberg-produced Twilight Zone: The Movie. The moderate success of the film was overshadowed by the tragic deaths of two child actors in a helicopter crash on the set.
COURTESY WARNER BROS. PICTURES
Actors Sean Connery, John Rhys-Davies, and Harrison Ford quest for the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Spielberg had to pass up a chance to direct Oscar champ Rainman to honor his handshake deal with George Lucas to do Indy 3.
COURTESY PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Jaws star Roy Scheider teamed up with Spielberg again for the disappointingly low-rated television series, seaQuest DSV.
“The director who wouldn’t grow up” takes a break on the set of Hook with stars Robin Williams and Julia Roberts. Although the star-studded cast was a box office plus, it inevitably created substantial behind-the-scenes ego friction.
PHOTOFEST
A ravenous T-rex eyeballs actor Sam Neill and young co-star Ariana Richards, in the 1993 Spielberg ultra-hit, Jurassic Park. The film knocked another reptilian Spielberg creation—E.T.—out of the number one slot for highest-grossing film, earning at last count more than $850 million.
Jurassic Park stars Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum rehearse their lines under Spielberg’s direction on the set in Kauai.
PHOTOFEST
After recent earthquakes, Spielberg may be unloading his multimillion dollar Los Angeles home overlooking the Pacific Ocean to move permanently to the more stable ground of his Long Island house.
MARIO RUIZ/PEOPLE WEEKLY
Filming Schindler’s List on location in Poland was an emotionally trying time for Spielberg. Addressing such a subject as the Holocaust was draining. “Twice during production, I called Robin Williams just to say, ‘Robin, I haven’t laughed in seven weeks. Help me here.’ And Robin would do twenty minutes on the telephone,” he said.
Spielberg takes a well-deserved break with his wife from the hectic shooting schedule of Schindler’s List. After twelve-hour workdays on the set in Poland, Spielberg would fly to Paris on the weekends to edit Jurassic Park.
MOSHE SHAI/SHOOTING STAR
In the 1994 film Schindler’s List, Liam Neeson (on platform), plays Oskar Schindler, a German who saved the lives of hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust by enlisting them to work in his factory. The film earned Spielberg his greatest critical acclaim, sweeping the Oscars that year.
COURTESY UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Ben Kingsley, co-star of Schindler’s List, chats with Spielberg at an American Film Institute event honoring the director for his magnificent work on the movie.
LEE SALEM/SHOOTING STAR
After the release of Schindler’s List, real Holocaust survivors saved by Oskar Shindler, one of whom appears here with Spielberg, gave the director a replica of a ring they had made for Schindler inscribed, “You save one life, you save the world.”
MOSHE SHAI/SHOOTING STAR
Spielberg basks with wife Kate Capshaw and mother Leah in the glow of long-withheld Oscar recognition. Spielberg took home Best Director and Best Picture awards for Schindler’s List in 1994.
SPIKE NANNARELLO/SHOOTING STAR
CHAPTER NINE
Doomed,
Temporarily
E.T. WAS A FILM VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO top commercially or critically, and with his next film, Spielberg didn’t even come close.
The only reason Spielberg made a sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1984 was his handshake promise to best friend George Lucas that if Raiders was a smash, he’d make two sequels.
The second installment, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, would test the boundaries of Spielberg’s keeping his word. And it would show just what a good friend he was to his mentor, Lucas.
Friendship, however, didn’t stop him from some amazingly honest self-criticism. He later would say he made the third Indiana Jones adventure to “apologize to my fans for making the second one.
“I wasn’t happy with the second film at all. It was too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific. I thought it out-poltered Poltergeist. There’s not an ounce of my own personal feeling in Temple of Doom.”
The film was indeed very dark for a movie that was supposed to be pure entertainment. There are scenes of human sacrifice, child slave labor, and the murderous Kali cult. Even the humorous elements, like the monkey brains dinner, were more gross than amusing. Spielberg himself admitted, “I think it’s too intense for children under twelve.”
The ironically titled Temple of Doom was even more significant because of the impact it would have on his personal life. Spielberg cast the woman who was to become his second wife, Kate Capshaw, in the female lead. With only one film under her belt, a flop called A Little Sex, she beat out 120 actresses for the job of the nightclub chanteuse, Willie Scott.
In a Valentine’s Day issue of Entertainment Weekly, Capshaw recalled their first meeting when she was a struggling actress driving a no-status car and he was the king of Hollywood:
“I met Steven 12 years ago when he was casting Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. It was raining and my hair was soaked. I wore jeans, a work shirt and cowboy boots.
“He was sitting with his back to me. When I came into view, he looked at me and said, ‘Oh, you’re not who I thought you were.’ I thought, ‘Great!’ Then I found myself thinking, ‘Well, maybe I can make this work for me.’
“Instead of an interview or audition, we started talking. I couldn’t get relaxed and kept trying to move closer. I moved from the couch to the fireplace, from there to a chair. I asked him to remove his sunglasses so I could see his eyes. It was like some sort of mating dance. Sparks were flying. When I got into my Volkswagen bug, my heart was racing, and it was five minutes before I could turn the key in the ignition. I thought, ‘I’m in big trouble.’ ”
Sparks flew, but Spielberg had married his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Amy Irving, only the year before. They were still in love. That would change, and Capshaw would get her chance to get into “big trouble” sooner than she thought.
Although Capshaw was smitten by the director the first time they met, she wasn’t overly impressed by his reputation. In fact, when he called to let her know she had landed the starring role in Temple of Doom, she almost hung up on him because she was busy moving into her new home in Los Angeles.
“Boxes were everywhere. There was a Czechoslovakian paperhanger upstairs, the baby-sitter was here with [her daughter] Jessica for the first time, and a girlfriend had stopped over to look at the house. It was Grand Central Station and I was late for work on Dreamscape when Steven called. I said, ‘Steven, you’ve caught me at a bad time. I really can’t talk.’ And he said, ‘But I’m calling from New York, and I just wanted to let you know . . .’ I said, ‘Steven, can you please call me tomorrow? I can hardly hear you now.’ This went on for a few minutes, and finally he said, ‘Would you sit down? I want you to play Willie Scott in Indiana Jones.’ I went, ‘Steven, I do not have time to talk about this . . . what?!!!’
“I got off the phone and started crying. I had such mixed feelings. Jessica was
only six years old and had already been to six schools, but I wasn’t going to leave her in L.A. I had a lot of other reservations, like would Meryl Streep do the sequel to Raiders? I was very ambivalent.”
But at this point in her career, Capshaw was no Meryl Streep, and she couldn’t afford to be choosy with only one flop under her belt. So putting aside her reservations and packing her daughter along with her things, she flew off to the jungles of Sri Lanka to shoot the film.
It was a momentous decision. As she would admit later, “Indy was a milestone. It changed my life in every way.”
Filming Temple of Doom took an exhausting five months on three continents. Further problems were caused by a three-week halt in filming due to problems the star, Harrison Ford, was having with his back. Ford’s recovery was speeded by special papaya enzyme treatments.
The film also allowed Spielberg to confront one of his phobias—insects. Even more than he enjoys scaring everyone from his sisters to the moviegoing public at large, the director apparently loves to terrorize himself. Temple of Doom literally employed a “cast of thousands,” 20,000 bugs. “Bugs absolutely terrify me, but it was my idea to put them in. I didn’t want to bring snakes back from Raiders—I was snaked out. I thought I could stand on a ladder and direct the bug scenes, but Kate [Capshaw] said she wouldn’t put up with the bugs crawling on her unless I stood right next to her. So I did, and they crawled all over me too. I could feel them walking on me with their sticky little feet,” Spielberg said.
Spielberg Page 14