The Fabelmans

The "Jaws" director has worked with screenwriter Tony Kushner on every film since his 2005 thriller "Munich." Kushner was previously a popular playwright, ...

"So he called Laura Dern and Laura Dern called David [Lynch]. "'It'll never happen because he'll never agree to do it but it should be David Lynch.'" Kushner was on board, but he agreed that Lynch would be a difficult get — and so did Spielberg. "The whole crew was like, 'This is the most meta, complicated thing: Steven Spielberg directing Gabriel LaBelle playing Steven Spielberg meeting John Ford played by David Lynch.' It was like... When Kushner's husband suggested Lynch for the part of John Ford, Spielberg thought it was a great idea, but he worried that the eccentric filmmaker would turn the role down. [DGA Q&A](https://www.dga.org/Events/2023/January2023/Fabelmans_QnA_1122.aspx) (via [The Film Stage](https://thefilmstage.com/watch-steven-spielberg-talk-to-martin-scorsese-about-how-david-lynch-became-john-ford/)) "[He said], 'I want to get the costume two weeks ahead of time to live in for two weeks. But it was the way John Ford was." Harris knew right away that the "Blue Velvet" director would be reluctant to join the cast of "The Fabelmans" "And the light bulbs went off the second I heard that name. We just sort of said, 'we'll find somebody.' And we started going through lots of really wonderful actors who kind of looked like him and were maybe a little too young — nothing was all that exciting." ["The Fabelmans"](https://www.slashfilm.com/1211819/the-fabelmans-perfectly-recreated-steven-spielbergs-childhood-home-made-him-break-down/) tells the tale of Steven Spielberg's childhood, how he found his love of movies, and how he eventually got introduced into the harsh world of the film business. He has been collaborating more or less exclusively with Spielberg for decades, with screenwriting credits including "Lincoln" and the "West Side Story" reboot. Kushner was previously a popular playwright, having penned "Angels in America."