PHOENIX — Steven Spielberg, the Oscar-winning director who's crafted some of cinema's most beloved coming-of-age tales, is now tapping into his own childhood spent in Arizona to create his next film.
His upcoming film, "The Fabelmans," is inspired by the years Spielberg and his family spent living in Phoenix in the late 1950s. Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and Paul Dano have been cast to play characters based on Spielberg's family members.
Amblin Entertainment, Spielberg's production company, announced last month "The Fabelmans" will be released in November.
Amblin has been responsible for producing several popular coming-of-age films like "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "The Goonies," and "Back to the Future."
Spielberg's family moved to Arizona in 1957 when the aspiring filmmaker was 10. The Valley was becoming a growing metropolis at this time, expanding in population by about 300,000 throughout the 1950s.
The Spielbergs settled into the Arcadia neighborhood, located near Indian School Road and 44th Street, and a young Steven began making short films with his family's 8mm camera.
Spielberg attended Arcadia High School and recruited his classmates to appear in his movies. His first feature film, a sci-fi story called "Firelight," was screened at the Phoenix Little Theatre.
During an interview on "Inside the Actor's Studio," Spielberg said "Firelight" cost $500 to film and local ticket sales grossed $501, yielding the teenager a profit of only $1.
"Firefight" would later serve as the inspiration for Spielberg's much more successful sci-fi film, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
Few details have been divulged about "The Fabelmans" but it's not the first project attached to Spielberg that involved elements of his childhood.
In 1999, Spielberg told the New York Times he was interested in potentially directing an autobiographical screenplay written by his sister about their family.
''My big fear 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,'' Spielberg told The Times.
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