Steven Spielberg wouldn’t be where he is without his crucial collaborators George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy. And you could say any of the trio have stepped in to save the day on a number of each other’s films through advice and in some cases even taking over directing duties. Without them we wouldn’t have the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, or Jurassic Park franchises.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Spielberg revealed a glorious bit of DNA about the making of Jurassic Park. With post-production on Jurassic Park still underway as his start date on Schindler’s List approached, he found himself in quite a predicament when Universal asked him to finish before taking off. Spielberg told Tom Pollock, who was Universal’s head of features, “I think I can overlap. I can do Schindler’s List while I’m finishing Jurassic Park.” When Pollock countered with apprehension about Spielberg’s shifting focus, the filmmaker promised that he wouldn’t leave the film and added, “Tom, I’m not going to abandon it. I’ve locked the film. All I have left to do is mix it, score it, and correct the color.”
While Spielberg planned to work on Jurassic Park from Europe, he also privately recruited his close friends and filmmaking team Lucas and Kennedy to step in stateside. He admitted, “I called George. I said, “George, I’m in trouble. The studio’s really upset with me that I’m going to not mix Jurassic Park and go off to Europe and make Schindler’s List. Would you mix Jurassic Park?” I already had his mixers working on the film, so George said he’d take over. And he and Kathy Kennedy mixed the film.” And the rest is cinema history: both movies went on to towering box-office and Oscar-winning success.
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