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When legendary Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg picks up the telephone and calls, any actor worth their salt picks up and picks up fast. After all, this is the visionary auteur who has literally transformed the moviemaking world with such drop the mic efforts as Duel, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Empire of the Sun, Always, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, A.I., Catch Me If You Can and Lincoln. You can always deep freeze or put off that impersonal and rather chilly email from Zack Snyder, but Spielberg is a Return Call Immediately type of figure who could too easily sail away into the Hollywood mist, his finger poised on Speed Dial for yet another Tom Hanks collaboration.
Such is the case with talented actor Josh O’Connor of Challengers fame who, according to our ‘Reach out and touch someone’ pals over at The Hollywood Reporter, has just received that aforementioned call from Mr. Spielberg summoning him onto the set of his eagerly-anticipated return to the world of science fiction in an upcoming Top Secret motion picture.
Little is actually known about this new film by the 1941 director other than that it plays in the sandbox of an old love of Spielberg’s, science fiction. Another neat factoid which has been confirmed about this mystery film is that Spielberg himself came up with the story while frequent collaborator David Koepp (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, War of the Worlds) wrote the actual screenplay. To many Spielberg purists, the Cincinnati, Ohio native is at his creative best when working on stories which he himself has a heavy hand in (for further evidence to this assertion, check out his recent 2022 film The Fabelmans).
As for which other actors will be taking the full-on Spielberg experience with O’Connor, we have at least a little more clarity in that regard: Emily Blunt, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo and Eve Hewson have all been conformed as having been cast in this upcoming sci-fi extravaganza. Universal Pictures, the home for many-a classic Spielberg film, will be the port of call for the thus far untitled movie.
The casting of O’Connor by Spielberg in the new film is nothing short of timely: The young actor is all the rage on the film festival circuit with an acclaimed turn in Challengers as well as upcoming fare like Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind and Wake Up Dead: A Knives Out Mystery.
Curious about what Steven Spielberg is cooking up for moviegoers along with Josh O’Connor and Co.? Frankly, so are we! Look for this mystery project to debut on May 15, 2026!
