(10 of 10)
In fact, only one of his future projects—the sequel to Raiders—will rely heavily on effects. He is developing a musical with Composer-Arranger Quincy Jones, and wants to remake the 1943 fantasy film A Guy Named Joe (a scene from it appears in Poltergeist). He is shepherding a number of film-school graduates through their first commercial movies. And fermenting in the back of his busy brain is a plot line for E. T. II. If he realizes half of the projects he has planned, he could be busy for the next 50 years. And when will he stop making films? Says Steven the Indefatigable: "When I'm Henry Fonda's age." Even then, one suspects, Spielberg—the Ahab of Jaws, the star child of Close Encounters, the Adventureland warrior of Raiders, the scheming spirit behind Poltergeist, the bright little boy of E.T.—will still be infusing familiar stories with his craft and his cagey innocence. For moviegoers, that may be as close as they can get to an old-fashioned ' 'happily ever after.''
—By Richard Corliss.
Reported by Martha Smilgis/Los Angeles