West Side Story director Steven Spielberg says he's done with directing musicals

He must have been tired from any future musicals after his attempts to get West Side Story’s rights from Stephen Sondheim. Spielberg opened up about the ordeal to the PGA panel. He recalls being trapped with the famed Broadway lyricist’s dogs sniffing his crotch while being “afraid to push them away [as] I didn’t want to offend him.”

However, this doesn’t mean that he won’t be involved in some high-profile musical films at all. Spielberg will be co-producing, alongside Oprah Winfrey, The Color Purple which is a musical film adaption of the popular Broadway show, starring Danielle Brooks and Fantasia Taylor. Spielberg originally produced and directed the 1985 film, earning eleven Oscar nominations for the Whoopi Goldberg-led movie and Spielberg’s first win at the Director’s Guild of America Awards.

If you’re not a musical fan though, Spielberg’s upcoming film The Fablemans goes back to his success with coming-of-age films. Loosely based on the director’s childhood growing up in Arizona, The Fablemans will have Paul Dano portraying Spielberg’s father, Michelle Williams as his mother, Seth Rogen as his uncle, and a random David Lynch probably doing his Lynchian thing. The sort-of autobiographical flick is set to release November 23, 2022, the perfect time for a post-Thanksgiving family outing.

Ever the busy man, Spielberg is also trying to make a film based on another famous Steve—Steve McQueen’s police detective character Frank Bullitt from the 1968's Bullitt. Goodbye choreographed dance sequences, hello elaborate car chase scenes!