After The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg will tackle a monument of the 7th art: Bullitt. Who will succeed Steve McQueen? We have the answer!
West Side Story, released in December 2021, was a bitter failure for Steven Spielberg, collecting only $76 million internationally for a budget of 100 million. To console himself, ET’s dad shot The Fabelmans, a feature film based on his adolescence in Arizona, in theaters on February 22, 2023.
After this very personal project, the filmmaker will resuscitate a Hollywood legend: Bullitt! Camped by Steve McQueen in the 1968 cult film, this super-cop character has marked the spirits to become an icon.
We all remember the legendary chase sequence in San Francisco, lasting 10 minutes, which blew viewers away at the time. Even today, it remains a pinnacle of its kind.
The story therefore followed Frank Bullitt, a reputedly nervous police lieutenant. He is charged by an ambitious politician to protect Johnny Ross, a gangster whose testimony is crucial in a trial involving the politician.
Despite the precautions taken by Bullitt and his men, Ross is seriously injured, then finished off in his hospital bed. Bullitt then realizes that the victim was not the real Ross. Spielberg would therefore like to bring this super-cop back to life to embark on a whole new story.
It would therefore not be a remake strictly speaking, as it was able to do with West Side Story. After a musical and his autobiographical film, seeing Spielberg return to the action feature is a pretty exciting idea on paper.
The director of Jurassic Park should sign this work under the leadership of Warner Bros. with Josh Singer scripting.
According to Deadline, it is Bradley Cooper who should slip into Frank Bullitt’s costume, taking over from the great Steve McQueen. The 47-year-old actor would collaborate for the first time with Spielby.
The two artists almost worked together when there was talk of the director taking over American Sniper before Clint Eastwood.
Note that Bradley Cooper is currently in post-production on Maestro, his next feature film in front of and behind the camera. We will see him alongside Carey Mulligan. The film will be released on Netflix in 2023. It is a biopic dedicated to Leonard Bernstein, legendary composer of West Side Story and On the docks.
In the meantime, Spielberg’s The Fabelmans will be released on February 22.