EXCLUSIVE: Steven Spielberg’s upcoming feature film is gaining momentum as he finds the next A-lister to join the film set, which is loosely based on the director’s childhood growing up in Arizona. Sources told Deadline that Seth Rogen will play young Spielberg’s favorite uncle in the untitled photo of Amblin, who already has Michelle Williams on board to play a role inspired by Spielberg’s mother, but with a separate and original voice.
Given how personal the story is, it will also mark the first time since 2001 THERE that Spielberg will participate in the task of screenwriter, co-writing the script with Tony Kushner, who has written several Spielberg films. The film will begin shooting this summer with the expectation that it will be released in 2022. Spielberg, Kushner and Kristie Macosko Krieger are the producers.
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As with anything involving Spielberg, the casting process has been super secret, leading the city to wonder who would get these coveted roles of family and friends that inspired the filmmaker’s growth. With the adult roles coming together, Spielberg will now seek to cast the remaining roles, which include children at various age levels, one of whom will play the role inspired by the young storyteller.
Over the years, Spielberg talked about how growing up in Arizona has been an inspiration for many of his films, from story themes to real characters. The HBO documentary 2017 Spielberg it came closer to delving into its past, but this will be the first time that Spielberg will really be able to give a perspective on the early years of the greatest storytellers in a cinema.
As for Rogen, he remains one of the busiest figures in the business on several fronts and has now added the entrepreneur to his list of credits. Rogen and his Point Gray partner, Evan Goldberg, recently launched Houseplant, a cannabis and household goods company in the United States; previously, it was only available in Canada. The launch was so successful that the site crashed due to demand.
On the cinema front, Rogen recently starred and produced Long shot as well as the Oscar nominee The Disaster Artist. In front of the TV, Point Gray is in production in the third season of Amazon’s hit series The boys, who also just announced a spinoff.
In addition to all this, Rogen will publish on May 11 his first book, Directory, A collection of short stories.
He is represented by UTA, Marsha McManus and the law firm Felker Toczek.