Steven Spielberg Didn’t Understand How His Kids Liked the 1 Film He Hated Making
Steven Spielberg has one of the most impressive filmographies that cinema has to offer. But not everyone’s film resume is flawless, including Spielberg’s.
There’s one feature in his iconic roster of films that the director didn’t enjoy making. But it also turned out to be one of his children’s favorite movies.
Steven Spielberg didn’t understand how his kids liked the 1 film he hated making
Not every film of his came out the way that Spielberg might have wanted to. One film that perhaps didn’t live up to expectations was his 1991 film Hook. The movie was a retelling of the classic Peter Pan fairy tale with comedian Robin Williams as Peter Pan. Dustin Hoffman co-starred in the film as the titular character Captain Hook.
But the film was a bit of a sore spot for Spielberg. The feature experienced a few notable controversies behind the scenes, and didn’t perform as well critically as some of his other movies. In an interview with Empire (via Den of Geek), Spielberg confided that he also had a low opinion of Hook. Although he hoped that might change with a few rewatches.
“I want to see Hook again,” he said. “I still don’t like that movie. I’m hoping some day I’ll see it again and perhaps like some of it.”
Spielberg might not have enjoyed filming Hook, but his film at least made fans out of his children. Spielberg’s kids even ranked Hook right up there with one of his most praised movies, which baffled the director.
“My kids haven’t seen my recent movies yet but if you want to talk about the old movies, the two they loved the most were E.T. and Hook,” Spielberg once told Parade. “I understand why they like E.T.—it gives them something to believe in. It’s a modern-day fairytale. I can’t quite figure out why they still love Hook. I usually screen my movies for them at my house, and I don’t have to ask them what they think. They tell me right to my face. My kids may be polite, but they’re not shy.”
Steven Spielberg wanted ‘Hook’ to be a family film like ‘E.T.’
Spielberg wanted to do Hook because it’d been a while since he made movies for the family. After E.T., he directed features like The Color Purple and Empire of the Sun. He produced a few family-friendly films through his production company such as Back to the Future and The Goonies. But he thought Hook would’ve been a return to his more family-friendly days as a filmmaker.
“I looked way back and said, ‘When was the last time I made a film that everybody could go see?’ The grandparents. The little kids. The mom and dad. Teenagers,” Spielberg once told ET. “And I guess the last time that happened for me, in terms of at least a film that was successful, was E.T.. I‘m not saying this is in comparison to E.T. at all, in any case, but just that I hadn’t made a family film for like 10 years.”
Perhaps Hook appealing to his children proved that the film accomplished what it set out to do despite negative reviews.
Steven Spielberg felt like a fish out of water making ‘Hook’
Spielberg confided that he was always interested in making a Peter Pan film. But he wasn’t sure how to approach the feature in a way that would make the story stand out from other adaptations. This changed when he was approached by a screenwriter who had a fresh twist on the Peter Pan mythology. The premise was, What if Peter Pan Grew up?
“It just got to me,” Spielberg said.
But making the film offered Spielberg another experience, and he revealed he had little faith in the material he was given for Hook.
“I felt like a fish out of water making Hook,” he said. “I didn’t have confidence in the script. I had confidence in the first act and I had confidence in the epilogue. I didn’t have confidence in the body of it.”
Spielberg attempted to compensate for the film’s potential shortcomings by making the film set bigger. Judging by Hook’s reviews, however, many might have felt that was a mistake.
“I didn’t quite know what I was doing and I tried to paint over my insecurity with production value,” he said.
