The Origins of Spielberg's Origins
This isn't the first time Spielberg's explored his early years. Before 'The Fabelmans', he and his sister Anne created 'I'll Be Home'.
Before I move onto the main focus of this newsletter, I wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who’s signed up so far. I wasn’t sure if people would take to such a niche newsletter and it’s been really heartening to see people take a chance and invite me into their inbox.
I'm aiming to get this out on a regular basis (maybe once every two weeks, maybe once a month), but to gather some momentum and show you what the future has in store, I wanted to publish a handful of editions in the first few weeks. I also wanted to celebrate the US release of ‘The Fabelmans’, and thought the best way to do that is to look at what the film could have been in a different form.
Note: This post was edited after initial publication to include quotes from Spielberg himself. Thanks to Robert Hospyan for pointing the article out.
By this point, we all know that The Fabelmans is based on Spielberg's life. Gabriel LaBelle as 'Sammy' is playing a version of Spielberg himself, and Michelle Williams and Paul Dano are fictionalised takes on his mum and dad. But what many don’t realise is that the project is at least two decades old and began life as I’ll Be Home under the pen of one of Spielberg's sisters.
I first became aware of I'll Be Home in an Empire magazine interview from August 2002 (issue #158). Asked if he'll ever make "your autobiographical project I'll Be Home", Spielberg responds:
"Someday. I don't know when, but someday. It's very personal, that's what scares me the most... I'm not ready to go public yet."
When I was putting the website’s 'Unmade Spielberg' page together, this project fascinated me more than most, so I did some further digging and came across a New York Times profile written by Stephen J. Dubner and published in February 1999. It notes:
"I ask Spielberg if he might ever make a film that’s truly about himself. Yes, he says, somewhat wistfully. It's called ‘I’ll Be Home’. It’s about his family, written by his sister Anne, who was a co-writer of ‘Big’. Spielberg has considered making ‘I’ll Be Home’ for years. ‘My big fear,’ he explains, ‘is that my mom and dad won’t like it and will think it’s an insult and won’t share my loving yet critical point of view about what it was like to grow up with them.'"
Dubner’s point that '“Spielberg has considered making' ‘I’ll Be Home’ for years” is an interesting one, suggesting that the project, in some form, pre-dates 1999. Steven almost joined Anne on Big in 1988, only declining the director’s chair out of fear that credit for the film would go to him and not Anne. So perhaps work on I’ll Be Home goes back to the late 80s, or maybe even earlier that decade with E.T., which as we all know is thinly autobiographical.
It’s pure speculation, of course, and the details of I’ll Be Home probably won’t be understood until some daring Indiana Jones type excavates the Amblin archives (I humbly volunteer). So let’s look at the big question instead: is The Fabelmans definitely an evolution of I'll Be Home? Well, the answer seems to be yes and no.
Earlier this month, The Film Stage's Nick Newman asked Fabelmans co-writer Tony Kushner whether Anne's script played any part in the film. Surprisingly, Kushner wasn’t even aware of I’ll Be Home’s existence:
“I didn’t know until we were close to production that Anne had written a script about this. Steven didn’t tell me that, and I think he probably didn’t want me to read it. I think he offered it to me, maybe, at that point but I didn’t want to read it at that point. We haven’t talked yet—Anne and I haven’t—about that.”
Spielberg himself, meanwhile, hasn’t spoken much about I’ll Be Home, but did briefly confirm its connections to The Fabelmans, telling Vanity Fair that while there is a link, the earlier project was less literal.
“That was much more a metaphor than actual events. It was a different kind of a story. It wasn’t this.”
So while it’s clear that I’ll Be Home didn’t have any direct impact on The Fabelmans, the two are definitely sister stories (in more ways than one!). I think it adds an extra layer of beauty to the project. This remembrance of parents and family has been pushing at the boundaries of its storyteller’s heart for two decades, and maybe even much, much more.
Double dancing
I won’t be seeing The Fabelmans until the end of January when it hits cinemas in the UK. Until then, I’m filling the time rewatching a few relevant Spielberg classics, and right at the top of the list is Catch Me If You Can.
It’s possible that we’ll look back on The Fabelmans as the concluding part of a ‘divorce trilogy’ alongside Catch Me and E.T.. All three films deal - to varying degrees and with different connections to literal reality - with children processing parental strife by escaping into fantasy. For Elliott, that fantasy is represented through E.T., for Frank it’s con artistry, for Sammy it’s movies.
Like I say, I haven’t seen The Fabelmans yet, but judging by the trailer there’s at least one other connection between the movie and the 2002 caper: mothers dancing in moments Spielberg imbues with an almost divine sense of wonder.
Splat!
I’ll end each newsletter with a choice selection from the archive, and what better way to end this edition than with a video that completely undercuts The Fabelmans’ warmth and sentiment? So, here’s something I found back in 2014: Spielberg getting slimed on Nickelodeon back in 1990.
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