Are you kidding? Spielberg to Direct New ‘Bullitt’ Movie

Lee Heidhues 4.22.2023

I was going to do a blog post about another of my favorite films. The 1968 filmed in San Francisco. ‘Bullitt’

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullitt

Looking for some interesting items to accompany a post on the original ‘Bullitt’ I came upon the news that Steven Spielberg is directing a remake of the 1968 classic. I don’t know. Everyone loves Spielberg. Not me. This is a director who can take the most serious topic and by the end of the movie turn it into some type of maudlin mush.

With all due respect for one of Hollywood’s favorites, Spielberg is not the Guy to bring this neo noir masterpiece into the 21st century.

In addition to being a great film, the Lalo Schifrin soundtrack in the 1968 release is one of the all time movie musical masterpieces.

Excerpted from IndieWire 11.17.2022

Steven Spielberg has found his Bullitt. Bradley Cooper has been cast in the director’s upcoming original film about Frank Bullitt, the character made famous from the 1968 Steven McQueen thriller.

Based on the 1963 novel “Mute Witness” by Robert L. Fish, the original “Bullitt” starred the late McQueen as the title character, a San Francisco Police Department lieutenant seeking to take down Chicago mobster Johnny Ross (Pat Renella).

Spielberg will direct the new Warner Bros. film, which will not be a remake of the original movie by Peter Yates, instead telling a completely original story starring Bullitt. Sources close to the project confirmed the news to IndieWire.

Cooper will join Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger as producers on the film — the three also serve as producers on Cooper’s upcoming feature “Maestro,” about the life of Leonard Bernstein. That film, currently in post-production, is set to release on Netflix in 2023. Oscar-winning “Spotlight” screenwriter Josh Singer will pen the screenplay for the new Bullitt film, with McQueen’s son Chad and granddaughter Molly executive producing.

In addition to McQueen and Ross, the original Bullitt also starred Robert Vaughn and Jacqueline Bisset. The film was a critical success, winning a best editing Oscar at the Academy Awards, and grossed $42.3 million on a $4 million budget. The movie is perhaps McQueen’s, who died in 1980, most famous role, and has come to be viewed as a huge influence on action films as a genre. In particular, the film’s car chase scene through San Francisco is widely regarded as iconic and has been the subject of many homages and parodies in the years since.