Steven Spielberg is heading West. The Oscar-winning director's next feature will be an untitled Western, the first of his career, and he hopes to start shooting it next year, according to his longtime cinematographer Janusz Kamiński.
Kamiński shared the plan in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, as The Playlist reported Monday. The pair most recently worked together on Spielberg's UFO thriller Disclosure Day. No title, cast or studio has been announced for the Western yet.
A new genre after three decades together
Kamiński and Spielberg have teamed on features since Schindler's List, a run that stretches from the 1990s into the 2020s, so the reunion itself is no surprise. The genre is. Spielberg has put horses on screen before, in War Horse and the Indiana Jones films, but he has never directed a true Western.
Earlier this year, Spielberg described the project as "kick-ass" and said it would avoid stereotypes, The Playlist noted. That promise will be worth watching once casting gets underway, since who gets to ride into the frame says a lot about how a Western sees America.
Kamiński also offered an early hint at the film's look. He pointed to a stretch of the Sudeten Mountains, with rolling hills, snow and fog, that reminded him of parts of Montana, and he told THR that filmmakers who come from other countries often see American landscapes differently, which is part of what they bring to American movies.
Spielberg has other projects moving as a producer in the meantime. They include Zach Cregger's sci-fi film The Flood at Amblin and New Line Cinema, and the next live-action Transformers movie at Paramount, with Michael Bay circling to direct.
For more on the director's latest, read Cup of Soul's review of Disclosure Day and our first look at its teaser.
