Steven Spielberg To Direct ‘The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara’
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Steven Spielberg’s last collaboration with screenwriterTony Kushnerwas so successful, the pair are teaming up again. Spielberg plans to directThe Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortarabased on a screenplay by Kushner. Mortara was an Italian Jew who made international headlines when he was removed from his home and raised as a Catholic in 1858.
The film will not be Spielberg’s next film, however. He’s still deciding between going back toRobopocalypseorMontezuma.The former much further along having just completed a total rewrite.
Varietybroke the news of Spielberg and Kushner’s latest collaboration (the last beingLincoln). The film will be an adaptation of aDavid Kertzernovel and Kushner has only just started writing. Here’s a description of the book fromAmazon:
With this terrifying scene, prize-winning historian David I. Kertzer begins the true story of how one boy’s kidnapping became a pivotal event in the collapse of the Vatican as a secular power. The book evokes the anguish of a modest merchant’s family, the rhythms of daily life in a Jewish ghetto, and also explores, through the revolutionary campaigns of Mazzini and Garibaldi and such personages as Napoleon III, the emergence of Italy as a modern national state. Moving and informative,the Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortarareads as both a historical thriller and an authoritative analysis of how a single human tragedy changed the course of history.
Sounds incredibly powerful and right in that Spielberg wheelhouse, with an inspirational story drawn from history. But, with writing just underway, it’s a ways off.
So what’s next? TheVarietystory says the following:
Some people close to Spielberg insist that he has not committed to what he will direct next, though others say “Robopocalypse” is the frontrunner. Of all his current projects, sources say “Robopocalypse” is the farthest along, with one person noting that the budget is close to being finalized.
Either way, add another movie to the huge stack of films the world’s most popular director is attached to direct. What do you think of Steven Spielberg doingThe Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara?
