Universal Pictures have set the date for Steven Spielberg’s return to the director’s chair and have described the project as a new original event film.
It could also be UFO related. Details below:
Universal Pictures has announced a new original event film created and directed by Steven Spielberg set for May 15, 2026. Uni always had the weekend reserved for an event title. No rival wide entries on this date yet.
David Koepp, a longtime collaborator of the filmmaker’s, is penning the script. They worked on Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Combined, those films grossed north of $3 billion worldwide.
Among Spielberg’s myriad honors: he’s a 3x Oscar winner, including for Best Director and Best Picture for Schindler’s List, which received a total of seven Oscars, and for Best Director for Saving Private Ryan. His most recent film, The Fabelmans, was released by Universal in 2022 and received seven Academy Awards nominations, including for Directing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Picture.
Earlier this year Variety reported:
For his part, Spielberg, 77, is also staying busy. He will likely make his next project a UFO film based on his own original idea. David Koepp is writing the screenplay, sources say.
Spielberg has explored the topic of UFOs and aliens in some of his earlier movies like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. There is also an old screenplay for an unproduced E.T. horror sequel Nocturnal Fear… maybe they will take inspiration from that.
It’s exciting to think – with all the recent developments and revelations in the UFO field – what the pair might be looking to focus the movie on.
Either way, David Koepp and Steven Spielberg back together for whatever the movie will be, is going to be great.