DRIVING SASHA SPIELBERG

"Mr. Spielberg's new movie is called The Fabelmans. It's an autobiographical work based on his own childhood in Arizona during the 1950's and '60's. Michelle Williams is going to play his mom; Paul Dano is his dad; Seth Rogen his uncle; and the playwright Tony Kushner wrote the script, along with Mr. Spielberg."

My mind was blown. "Who's playing the young Mr. Spielberg?!"

"Don't know yet. There's an open casting call for that role. Mr. Spielberg wants to find 'a sensitive, impressionable young boy who knows how to keep his mouth shut."

"An auto-biopic!" I pushed for more info. "Have you read the script?

Alejandra looked at me like I was nuts. "Are you nuts?" she asked. "The script is embargoed. No one besides Mr. Spielberg and Mr. Kushner has read the whole thing. Even the actors only get their sides (script pages) on the day they shoot their scenes."

***

IN 1964, WHEN HE WAS ONLY 17, Mr. Spielberg directed his first feature film, a 135-minute sci-fi epic entitled Firelight. The budget of $500 was put up by his parents, and the cast was made up of his sister, Nancy, and high school friends. Mr. Spielberg composed the score with his mother, a former pianist, and got his high school marching band to perform it. I've never gotten to see the film, nor has anyone other than the people who attended its sole public screening that March at his local cinema, the Phoenix Little Theatre in Arizona where he grew up. Why? Well, interestingly, a couple of years later, Mr. Spielberg lent two reels of the 8mm film to a producer in Hollywood as a showcase of his directing ability. That producer soon "went bankrupt", and the film was (suspiciously?) lost. We do, however, still know the plot:

Firelight follows a group of scientists — particularly Tony Karcher and UFO believer Howard Richards — as they investigate a series of colored lights in the sky and the subsequent disappearance of people, animals, and objects from the fictional American town of Freeport, Arizona. Among those abducted are a dog, a unit of soldiers and a young girl named Lisa. The film focuses on the obsessive quest of Richards to convince the CIA that alien life exists. The twist comes as the aliens, represented by three shadows, reveal their purpose: to transport Freeport to their home planet Altaris and create a human zoo.

***

DURING MY FIRST TWO MONTHS working in preproduction on The Fabelmans I was never formally introduced to Mr. Spielberg. I saw him several times, but he remained an elusive presence, a benevolent figurehead who'd, on occasion, pass through our building, thank us for our hard work and then, stroking his beard with his left hand, while adjusting his glasses with his right, time and time again, repeat the same intoxicating mantra: "Don't forget gang: This is it. Most important movie of my career. Gonna be bigger than De Mille's Ten Commandments!"

Now, as a P.A. my tasks were restricted primarily to photocopying, sorting letters, emptying dishwashers, and getting coffee, but the idea that I'd get to have a credit - even as the belowest of the below the line - on what Mr. Spielberg called the most important film of his life was too much to process. Alejandra and I spent days at work and nights in bars whispering about what he might actually mean by what he kept repeating to us.

"When he says, 'This is it', is he setting up the next sentence, 'Most important movie of my career', or is it a separate thought altogether? Could 'it' mean 'ultimate?' Do you think 'This is it', means 'This is my last movie?' You don't think this is Mr. Spielberg's final film, do you?!"

"Why do you think he chooses the adjective 'important' to describe the film's placement in his oeuvre, rather than 'best' or 'favorite' or 'utmost'? Is it the 'most important' film of his career only to him because it's about him, or will it also be the 'most important' film of his career to other people who are not him, as well? Do you think 'important' in his usage of the word, means 'artistically original' or do you think that it means 'of profound thematic significance?'"