has been making movies for over half a century now. He rose most prominently to fame when he released Jaws in 1975. Since then, , including Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Hook. The director is also known for making Oscar-worthy work. While he has not won as many Academy Awards as expected, Spielberg has been nominated for numerous films, including The Color Purple, Saving Private Ryan, and Schindler's List.

, but his age has not stopped him from actively working in the industry. In 2022, he directed the semi-autobiographical movie The Fabelmans, which was nominated for Best Picture among other awards. He has also been adding on to his producing resume, serving as a producer on Maestro and 2023's The Color Purple and as an executive producer on Transformers One and Twisters. Now, Spielberg is at work on another movie, and I am even more excited about it after recent news.

Spielberg is currently making. Currently, the movie still has no title nor full plot information revealed. It has, however, been widely reported that the Spielberg film will have something to do with a UFO. Even without all the information unveiled, this is a big deal for Spielberg as it marks his return to the sci-fi genre. Sci-fi is part of what got him famous in the first place, but he has been more focused on dramas in recent years.

Another exciting element to this untitled Spielberg film is its cast. Though their roles are unknown, the movie has cast several major stars, Many of these stars come from recently acclaimed and/or popular movies and TV shows, making them a particularly buzzy group. Domingo is even coming off of a Best Actor nomination for Sing Sing. These cast members can further elevate the Spielberg film.

While the plot details are still under wraps, actor O'Connor recently revealed an exciting tease about the film. The Challengers actor was recently asked about the Spielberg project in an interview with Deadline. He said it was like "old-school Spielberg" and noted that people would be excited about the film. He even went so far as to compare the upcoming movie to E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Check out the full quote below:

: I’ll tell you what I’ll say. It’s like old-school Spielberg. I think people will be excited.

: Close Encounters, E.T.; that world.

While Spielberg has done other sci-fi movies, such as Minority Report, Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out in 1977, two years after Spielberg began scaring audiences with Jaws. It wound up winning a special achievement award at the Academy Awards for its sound effects and was regarded as one of his best works. E.T. is Spielberg's timeless family classic whose iconic image even inspired the logo for his studio, Amblin Entertainment.

In some ways, the comparison between E.T. and Close Encounters and Spielberg's new movie is unsurprising. After all,. That said, O'Connor does not simply seem to draw the plot connection. Rather, "old-school Spielberg" could reference the style and sensibilities surrounding the director's older works, which could give the new film a sense of nostalgia.

This return to form could be particularly welcome after Spielberg's recent track record. Directorially, Spielberg's most recent work is The Fabelmans. While the movie was critically well-received at the time of its release, it isn't as memorable as past Spielberg works. I felt that it had some good moments (and a great, underrated performance from Seth Rogen), but did not pack the punch of some of the director's other films. It is also a more conventional drama, and it sounds like his new film will be more outside the box.

Before The Fabelmans, Spielberg released his adaptation of West Side Story. In some ways, this movie was a revelation in that it introduced audiences to the now-superstar actor Rachel Zegler. The box office told a different story. After being delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, West Side Story eventually hit theaters in December 2021, where .

Spielberg's Unlike West Side Story, this movie did quite well in theaters, making over $607 million on its estimated $175 million budget. That movie came out in 2018, so it is creeping up to a decade since audiences have last seen any sci-fi from Spielberg. This is not to mention, additionally, that Ready Player One is a modernized, dystopian sci-fi; it has been much longer (and too long, I would say) since Spielberg directed a more classic sci-fi film. This latest project could bring new life to his work.

If the move back towards sci-fi was not good enough, O'Connor's tease makes me significantly more excited about the project. Except for Ready Player One, a lot of the 21st-century Spielberg has been consumed by Oscar-bait dramas like Bridge of Spies and The Post. Even Lincoln, which featured an iconic lead performance from Daniel Day-Lewis, is a standard biopic, and much less inventive than in earlier days.

The Fabelmans may not have been Spielberg's best work, but if its semi-autobiographical insights taught us anything, it was that Spielberg's most inspired creative spark comes from his more inventive genre works. As such, This will not just be a return to his early feature work, but a throwback to the original types of works that got the now-renowned director interested in film in the first place.

Only Spielberg can have no title, plot, or character information and still have a movie generate this much buzz. As a Colman Domingo fan, I could not be more excited about his role and the high-caliber rest of the cast. But O'Connor's recent quote, connecting the film to E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, really pushes this untitled UFO project over the edge of huge anticipation.

Source: Deadline