During a wide-ranging conversation with The Ringer host Sean Fennessey at the Hilton Austin, part of the South by Southwest Film Festival and ostensibly to start promoting his new film “Disclosure Day” (out on June 12), Steven Spielberg revealed that he is very much in development on a Western.
Earlier in the conversation, Spielberg said that he wants “to make a Western.” He then said, half-serious, “And I want to shoot it in Texas!” (South by Southwest is, shall we say, an enthusiastic crowd where appealing to their innate Texanness is strongly encouraged.) Spielberg then added, “There’s going to be horses. And guns. And there will be no tropes. There will be no stereotypes.”
Later on in the conversation, when asked if there was anything that he still wants to do in his career, Spielberg reiterated that he wants to do a Western – a genre that has so far eluded the prolific filmmaker, who has made war films, historical epics, white-knuckle thrillers, ribald comedies, science fiction films and an animated feature. “Without giving too much away, it’s something I’m currently developing,” Spielberg said. Before adding: “And it kicks ass.”
It’s unclear who is writing this Western and what the timeline is looking like. But hopefully we get Spielberg’s take on the Old West sooner rather than later.
Friday’s confirmation that the prolific Oscar winner is in development on a Western feature came after he said last year that it’s a genre that he’s struggled to crack into but always wanted to do.
“It’s something that’s eluded me for all of these decades,” he admitted at the time.
“Disclosure Day” marks Spielberg’s first film as a director since 2022’s autobiographical “The Fablemans.” The mysterious film, starring Josh O’Connor, Emily Blunt and Colman Domingo, is centered around the reveal of the existence of extraterrestrials.
