Hey folks, Harry here. Esquire here has recently had a peek at the inside of Spielberg’s latest project, MINORITY REPORT. He seems a bit unfamiliar with the story, that’s because he’s just seen pieces and hasn’t read the original source material or the script, but is reporting merely what he saw. He incorrectly assumes there is time travel in this film, there is not. The basic concept for those of you unfamiliar with Dick’s original story, it’s this... The future has no murder thanks to the psychic abilities of three siblings that are kept at a special facilitiy and nourished while they look into the future to guard against murder. If they say you will kill some one in the future, you are picked up, sentenced and executed before the ‘time’ of the crime. This way no murders are committed. This film deals with a man who is accused, that isn’t so easy to capture and kill. That man is played by Tom Cruise, and the man chasing him (I believe, or it could be the other way around) is Matt Damon. Now... On to what Esquire has seen...
Hi there Harry,
I recently came by some information on the upcoming Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise project and I wanted to fill you in. The working title of the film is currently "Minority Reports" and it is slated for a late June release, but that is no new news. The film is scheduled to start shooting in a few weeks, shortly after Cruise finishes with Mission Impossible: II. Nothing else I am about to say has been published on the Internet, to my knowledge, so some people might consider it spoiler material.
Fox’s internal documents are marketing the film as "futuristic, not sci-fi." Judging by the conceptual drawings I saw, it is difficult to tell the difference. The film is set c. 2080 on earth and the conceptual drawings indicate it will include a great deal of CGI. The cities in the drawings looked very much a hybrid of The Jetson’s and Phantom Menace’s Coruscant. City buildings were tall, round and chrome, and there were large clear tubes (perhaps roadways?) running all around the city. One small production detail: cars will have the ability to move frontward and backwards, like normal cars, but also very quickly from side to side. According to my source, it is safe to assume that there will be some action shots that make use of this ability. The futuristic setting surprised me; it is quite a departure from Spielberg’s last few projects. I tried to make copies of the conceptual drawings, but they were removed very quickly. Sorry.
Now to the good stuff: the plot. The story centers on Cruise being pursued by a group of people. Cruise’s character is baffled because he has no idea why anyone would want to harm him. It turns out the group is pursuing Cruise for killing someone in the future (evidently some kind of time travel is possible by 2080). By killing Cruise in the past, Cruise’s future killing will be prevented. It sounds kind of like the Terminator concept. Does Cruise murder the person in the future, or is it death by accident? I have no idea. Any other casting details? None. The significance of the title, Minority Reports? Absolutely clueless. However, at least we now know the general plot. I’m sure your sources will fill in the details for us in the months ahead.
Needless to say, the people at Fox are expecting this film to be HUGE. The script to this film is a VERY close kept secret. No one can get their hands on a script. It is being guarded a la The Phantom Menace. My source wouldn’t answer any questions about the film, and wouldn’t give out any more details. They simply outlined out the information described above, showed a few conceptual drawings, and left. I hope you find it interesting. I will let you know if I come by any other information.
my best,
Esquire
