THE FABELMANS TRIVIA!!!

Since 'The Fabelmans' is the latest review that I worked on for the Examiner, here are some fun little tidbits about the film!!

• Seth Rogen told reporters that Steven Spielberg often became emotional on the set during production. "It was a very emotional experience. He was crying a lot on set," he said. "It's very directly based on his life and pretty much everything that happens in the movie is something that happened to him. As we were shooting, I'd be like, 'Did this happen in real life?' and the answer was 'yes' a hundred percent of the time."

• For the scenes of Sammy filming his own 8mm films, Steven Spielberg decided to have the character re-create the exact ones he made during his childhood, and worked with cinematographer Janusz Kaminski to ensure that they were portrayed as accurately as possible, but with improvements in the camera angles. A few of the films portrayed in this film include the Western short film that he made with his fellow Boy Scout friends in order to earn the photography merit badge, the war short film Escape to Nowhere (1961), in which he used his school bully by casting him in the lead role in an effort to face his fears, and Spielberg's re-creation of the train wreck scene from Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth (1952).

• Spielberg remarked "It was joyful being able to recreate those films. ... I shot a lot of films when I was a kid on 8mm. It was unique in those days. Not a lot of people were going out and shooting in 8mm. It was physical; it was a craft. You had to sit there with a...splicer, and then you had to scrape the emulsion off the film in order to get a seal so when you put glue on it, you literally glued the film together. And I must say, I miss it."

• Steven Spielberg claimed that although he and Tony Kushner had discussed the idea of the movie for years, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that he decided to write the screenplay with Kushner from scratch while his schedule was clear. The two of them wrote the script from their homes during lockdown and finished it in two months.

• During filming, the cast gained access to home movies, photographs, and recollections from Steven Spielberg's family's past to learn what they were like and how to portray the fictionalized versions of them (The Fabelman family) on screen, while making them feel fresh and original. Paul Dano reflected: "It was overwhelming and it was sort of a heavy cloak to bear because we were with someone who was having a big experience everyday, revisiting and reworking through a part of their life... For somebody like Steven to share that much of himself with us - with the audience too - it was really a profound experience."

• The 8mm and 16mm camera props used in the film had real film inside them, with Gabriel LaBelle being taught how to use the cameras, so that what was shot with them on set could be developed for usage in the film, as well as how to cut and splice film stock using the editing machines and film projectors of the 1950s and 60s.

• This may likely be one of the last collaborations between Steven Spielberg and John Williams. According to reports, Williams (who will turn 91 in February 2023) is planning to retire (from composing for films, he said he will still write concert music) after composing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023). He also added that saying "no" to Steven Spielberg wasn't an easy thing to do.

• Steven Spielberg's first screenplay credit since A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001).

• The film received a strongly positive reception at its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, receiving two standing ovations from the audience, one before the film when Steven Spielberg took the stage to introduce it, and a longer one preceding the post-film Q&A. The crowd was also reported to have been loudly chanting Spielberg's name while outside waiting to get into the theater during the red carpet arrivals.

• There are several allusions to E.T. including the scene where young Sammy is scared by his trains colliding and knocks down an entire shelf; the shot of the boy scouts riding bikes with baskets attached; the use of closets for poignant scenes; and the scene where Sam inadvertently shows his dad the photo of Mitzi and Bennie.

• The film received five nominations at the 80th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director for Spielberg, and 11 nominations at the 28th Critics' Choice Awards, including Best Picture.

• As of January 8, 2023, The Fabelmans has grossed $13.3 million in the United States and $2.1 million in international territories, for a worldwide gross of $15.4 million.

• After four weeks in theaters (including its limited run), Spielberg's film grossed $6 million domestic, making it the worst financial performance ever for a Spielberg film, with the general public's trending lack of interest in prestige films, a muted reception from older audience demographics and the large decline in popularity of and indifferent arguments to Spielberg and his filmography cited as the reasons.