Over the past 40-plus years, Steven Spielberg has cemented his legacy as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, churning out classic films with unprecedented consistency and regularity. From Jaws to Bridge of Spies, the director’s résumé boasts a laundry list of acclaimed projects and Hollywood blockbusters.
It may come as a surprise that Spielberg’s otherworldly catalog has never been properly celebrated on screen — yet. Thanks to HBO, that all changes soon, with an October 7 release set for Spielberg, an exclusive documentary. HBO has released the first trailer.
The film is directed and produced by Susan Lacy, who served as executive producer on PBS’ popular biography series American Masters for nearly 20 years. According to Variety, Lacy conducted more than 30 hours’ worth of interviews for Spielberg, which will feature a Hollywood who’s who of stars that have worked with Spielberg over his five-decade career.
Leonardo DiCaprio (Catch Me if You Can), Liam Neeson (Schindler’s List), Christian Bale (Empire of the Sun), Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), and Harrison Ford (Raiders of the Lost Ark) are just a few of the A-list names who appear in the film — alongside Spielberg himself, of course. Several legendary directors and producers will also make appearances, including Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.
Many of Spielberg’s most iconic films are featured in the trailer, including E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Saving Private Ryan. There’s also a fair smattering of old photos and video footage featuring the young director earning his stripes and palling around on set.
The hotly anticipated documentary isn’t the only new addition to HBO’s library next month. The ninth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm will launch on October 1, and The Tracey Ullman Show is also set to make a return (after more than 25 years!) with new sketches available beginning October 20. For a full list of additions — and subtractions — check our guide here.
Meanwhile, if you’re a Spielberg fan, you should be excited to know that a new Indiana Jones film is on the way, as well as historical drama The Post (December 22) and sci-fi/action flick Ready Player One (March 2018).
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.