Steven Spielberg’s Hook is a movie with a weird and divisive reputation today, and it could have been more of each.
The acclaimed director is making the rounds in the press during his promotional for his upcoming adaptation of 1957’s West Side Story. In an interview with The Guardian‘s Ryan Gilbey, Spielberg revealed the acclaimed musical about gang violence in New York City was a significant part of his life since he was a child. Spielberg even sang along to Bernstein and Sondheim’s soundtrack at home.
The director also dropped a fun fact about another direction his pirate movie could have taken in the interview.
“I chickened out after the first week of shooting and took all the songs out,” Spielberg said. “It was the biggest paradigm shift I’ve ever had while directing a movie. It just didn’t seem right for some strange reason. Maybe I didn’t feel ready…I had a couple of false starts too. At some point, I decided I had to have the courage of my convictions.”
So far, those convictions are validated if the reviews for the film hitting wide release tomorrow are any indication. Rotten Tomatoes has them at the overwhelmingly positive level of 94 percent, and honestly, it would not have been a bad idea to see Hook as a musical. Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, and Spielberg certainly had the talent, and even if things had gone wrong on that path, it would have been a more interesting misfire.