Three legendary longtime colleagues open up about the director’s role in getting J.J. Abrams to helm ‘Episode VII,’ the mistake that would have cost ‘Jurassic World’ director Colin Trevorrow his job and how to find young helmers (who don’t suck).
Kathleen Kennedy is late. Few people keep Steven Spielberg waiting, but this isn’t a first. “I always like to say, ‘The late Kathy Kennedy,’ ” says Spielberg, 69, as we sit in late April in an anonymous office on the Sony lot, where he is working on scoring The BFG.
As head of Lucasfilm, Kennedy, 63, has a few Star Wars sequels and spinoffs to deal with. She and her husband, 69-year-old producer Frank Marshall — also here waiting for her to arrive — have collaborated with Spielberg for decades. The three first worked together in 1981, when Spielberg directed Raiders of the Lost Ark, Kennedy was his assistant and Marshall was the producer. Since then, they have worked in various combinations on many other Spielberg-produced and -directed movies, from 1982’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial to War Horse in 2011. (Kennedy also produced the 2012 film Lincoln with Spielberg, but Marshall was not involved.) All three have producer credits on The BFG (in theaters July 1) but when that film started shooting, Kennedy’s duties at Lucasfilm kept her away much of the time. “I wasn’t there a lot but enough to see what was going on,” she says. Marshall was there every day, even while Jurassic World, also produced by him and Spielberg, was about to be released.
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