Although Steven Spielberg is one of the greatest directors of all time, not everything he touches turns to solid gold. After making Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg cemented himself as one of the greatest sci-fi movie directors, but his talents don’t begin or end in a single genre. Spielberg is commonly considered the most successful director in modern cinema, and many of his movies have become utterly iconic. Though he has proven himself a master of feature-length storytelling, not every project he has set out to make has succeeded. Over the years, some of Spielberg’s planned movies have been cancelled before ever coming to fruition.
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One such movie, Robopocalypse, based on David H. Wilson’s novel of the same name, spent years stuck in development hell before being scrapped. Speaking with Empire, Spielberg explained exactly why Robopocalypse remained unmade despite the director having been attached to the project for some time. “It would have ended a whole studio that would have never made its money back. So, I literally decided it was going to be the most expensive movie I ever directed, and I wasn’t ready to take that on,” the director explained. “My company, DreamWorks, financed all these films, and I did not want to bring [Robopocalyse] into my own company, because it would have just been too expensive for us to produce. He also explained why he didn’t agree to have another studio to finance it, saying, “I didn’t want to do that to anybody because I couldn’t guarantee the audience.”
What Robopocalypse’s Cancellation Says About Steven Spielberg
Of course, the obvious takeaway from Spielberg’s assessment of the production issues surrounding Robopocalypse is that he’s fundamentally conscious of the financial implications of making massive blockbusters. That alone is quite impressive, considering the many years the director has spent working in a Hollywood bubble where budget doesn’t come into the equation in the same way it would for lesser-known filmmakers. However, there’s another lesson to be learned from Spielberg’s comments, and it highlights just why his own studio, Amblin Entertainment, has had so much sci-fi success.
Steven Spielberg has been such a major player in Hollywood for so many years that it’s easy to overlook just how well he knows the film industry. His explanation of the difficulties in making Robopocalypse don’t just outline his sensitivity to being financially responsible, but also his shrewd business sense. Though he is first and foremost a filmmaker, Spielberg appears to innately understand the importance of trusting in a movie’s ability to recoup its budget.
Though Spielberg knows that even great movies can bomb at the box office, he makes it clear that he feels it’s important to give a movie — and the studio financing it — the best possible chance to succeed. It explains not just why Spielberg has found such consistent success in Hollywood, but also why he appears to be so well-respected by his peers. While the cancellation of Robopocalypse is disappointing, it does at least highlight some of the great qualities of one of the world’s greatest directors.
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