The director, whose credit embrace a few of the biggest-grossing and best-loved works in cinema historical past, together with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Jaws, has simply completed two movies again to again: the semi-autobiographical The Fabelmans and West Side Story, a movie of the basic Broadway musical.

“Whatever seized me as a little kid is the same feeling I retained all those decades later,” he advised reporters on Tuesday. “When I find a book or a script or come up with an original idea that I think would make a good movie: that excitement… supersedes everything.”

Spielberg, professing he “loves to work and needs to work”, is finalising a script left unfinished by his pal Stanley Kubrick on the time of his demise in 1999.

“We’re mounting a large production for HBO based on Stanley’s original script Napoleon,” he mentioned. “A seven-part limited series.”

Reflecting on the previous two years of frenetic film-making, Spielberg mentioned the pandemic prompted him to revisit his childhood in The Fabelmans.

“My mom used to say: ‘I’ve given you so much good material. When are you going to use that material?’” he mentioned. “The fear I felt about the pandemic gave me the courage to tell my personal story.”

Spielberg, recognized for his accessible, compelling motion pictures, suggested would-be filmmakers to start out with the story.

“If you want to be a movie director, first of all write,” he mentioned. “Because it’s the stories that are going to get an audience to pay attention to you, not the shots.”