55 Years On, Steven Spielberg Confirms a Career First For His Next Movie (And Movie Fans Are Already Excited)

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Spielberg spoke at SXSW with The Big Picture’s Sean Fennessey (via EW), and that’s where Spielberg said, “Well, I’m developing a Western, and it’s gonna have horses. There will be guns.” The reaction to the western announcement drew big applause from the crowd, and it marks a major milestone for Spielberg, who has expressed several times in the past that he’s wanted to create a western. Now it is set to become a reality, and hopefully we’ll get more details soon.

Steven Spielberg’s Western Won’t Retread Old Concepts

This new western project is set to be Spielberg’s next film, so there’s not much in the way of details about it just yet. Spielberg did provide a noteworthy details after the initial reveal, saying, “But there’ll be no tropes, I can just tell you that. There are gonna be no stereotypes, no tropes,” Spielberg said.

There are a multitude of hallmarks when it comes to the western genre, and there are several of those hallmarks that can’t help but feel dated. There are also other elements that feel almost required when you have a western-themed project, so Spielberg’s mission statement of no tropes and no stereotypes is a welcome one, and should also help the film stand out from other films in the genre.

To be fair, there are certainly Western elements throughout the Indiana Jones series that will likely translate well to a fully Western story, so if those films’ action sequences are anything to go by, this new film already has a head start. If someone’s going to have a chase sequence, can you think of many people better than Spielberg to not only have it land with impact but stand apart from anything else out there?

As for westerns that inspire Spielberg, he has previously expressed that John Ford’s The Searchers and Stagecoach have always been favorites of his, and he admires Stagecoach in particular for its powerful use of the camera and how scenes are framed. It is worth noting that Spielberg has been a producer and executive producer on Western projects before, but this will be his first time directing one.

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