Palisadian Steven Spielberg Directs ‘The Fabelmans’

By LILY TINOCO | Assistant Editor

Academy Award-winning director and Palisadian Steven Spielberg’s latest film “The Fabelmans” hit select theaters on Friday, November 11.

The film—written by Spielberg and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner—follows a family modeled after the Spielbergs. It reveals the life of Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle), Mitzi (Michelle Williams) and Burt’s (Paul Dano) eldest and only son. Mitzi is described as Sammy’s “artistic” mother, and Burt is his “successful, scientific father.”

The Fabelmans move from New Jersey to Arizona, then Northern California, all while Sammy is discovering his niche: filmmaking. Simultaneously, he begins to recognize his parents’ incompatibility.

Spielberg’s parents split in 1966 when he was in high school. He previously said their divorce inspired the making of “E.T.”

“A divorce creates great responsibility, especially if you have siblings; we all take care of each other,” Spielberg said at a film festival in April 2021. “What if Elliott, or the kid—I hadn’t dreamt up his name yet—needed to, for the first time in his life, become responsible for a life form to fill the gap in his heart?”

At the same event, Spielberg revealed that he had been working on “an actual literal script” about his parents’ split—presumably, “The Fabelmans.”

“I had been working on ideas about that and what it did to my sisters and myself,” he said.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Spielberg explained that he didn’t “get serious” about telling his story until the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Some of my kids flew in from the East Coast, and they all took up residence in their old bedrooms, and Kate [his wife] and I got a lot of our family back,” he said. “It was very disconcerting not to go into work. I had a lot of time on my hands … I started thinking, ‘What’s the one story I haven’t told that I’d be really mad at myself if I don’t?’ It was always the same answer every time: the story of my formative years growing up between 7 and 18.”

Joining LaBelle, Williams and Dano on the silver screen are Seth Rogen, Jeannie Berlin, Julia Butters, Robin Bartlett and more.

With a runtime of two hours and 31 minutes, “The Fabelmans” is slated to be released worldwide on November 23.