If you're a fan of the Saturday Night Live Digital Shorts created by the Lonely Island boys, then you're doubtless a fan of "Laser Cats."  The perennially but joyously terrible ongoing saga of two warriors played by Andy Samberg and Bill Hader in an apocalyptic future of cats as laser weapons came back this last weekend with the seventh installment, and this one has a very consistent theme: the blockbusters of Steven Spielberg.

As Superman is to superheroes, Steven Spielberg is to directors.  He's the biggest, the most immediately identifiable by the vast majority of moviegoers, and he's the first guy people think of when they hear the word "director."  It makes a certain kind of sense, then, that the biggest director around would be attracted to one of the biggest stories ever told.  According to Deadline, The Bearded One is nearing a deal with Warner Bros to direct Gods and Kings, a new take on the tale of Moses that frames the Old Testament figure principally as a warrior.

In the next few weeks, we'll be seeing two movies from Steven Spielberg, his first theatrical efforts since 2008, and with The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse on the way, it's only natural to ponder the man who has become synonymous with the very idea of a director.  A new video essay has been making the rounds today, titled "The Spielberg Face," and it examines that signature look of awe, coupled with a dolly move in on a character's face, that appears in so much of Spielberg's work.  It's basically when a character is thinking, "Ho-ly shiiiiiit" in response to something offscreen.  You know the one, even if you don't know you know it, and this video provides an intellectual examination of its use and changing meaning throughout Spielberg's career. 

A few weeks back, the internet soiled its collective pants at the sight of Daniel Day-Lewis casually eating lunch because he happened to be doing so whilst sporting a very familiar beard, the one he grew in order to play the sixteenth president of these United States in Lincoln.  Well, if Day-Lewis in a turtleneck enjoying a meal got you going, then strap yourself in for the first real look at the actor in full costume, stovepipe hat included, strolling on the Richmond, Virgina set alongside director Steven Spielberg. 

Also present: a young chap in the uniform of a Union soldier, keeping his cool in the presence of one of the best directors in the history of the medium and one of the best actors playing as important a historical figure as exists for Americans.

If you're looking to tell an epic tale, then look no further than the Old Testament story of Moses, from his being set afloat on the Nile River as a pup though his personal chats with Yahweh to the liberation of his people from their oppression in Egypt and possibly including a forty year trek through the desert. 

If you're doing a new take on Moses, it's going to have to stack up against The Ten Commandments, Cecil B. Demille's three hour and forty minute 1956 epic.  So who could possibly deliver an appropriately massive new version of Moses' story?  How about Steven Spielberg, who, according to an as yet unconfirmed rumor, is in talks to direct Gods and Kings.

Quentin Tarantino continues to wrangle yet another wonderfully eclectic cast for his next feature, the American South-set pre-Civil War Spaghetti Western Django Unchained.  Last week, we learned that the auteur who most recently directed Inglourious Basterds had persuaded Don Johnson to play a plantation owner encountered by the title character, and now Variety reports that none other than Joseph Gordon-Levitt is currently in talks to play an as-yet unspecified role in Django Unchained.

We have been without a new Steven Spielberg movie since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull back in 2008, which itself came after a several year dry spell.  This December, though, the Bearded One comes back in a big way with The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse just four days apart.  It's the beginning of what will hopefully be a prolific period from one our finest living directors, as Spielberg is also preparing his long-in development historical drama Lincoln starring Daniel Day Lewis as the 16th American president, and he's planning on following that up with the large-scale science fiction film Robopocalypse.  Spielberg shared some information on these two wildly different projects, touching upon Lincoln's "procedural" aspects and the Robopocalypse timeframe.

Steven Spielberg has been developing a film centered around the 16th President of the United States for quite literally years.  Lincoln has been brewing for so long that Spielberg even lost his original leading man, Liam Neeson, after the actor just couldn't keep waiting around.  Two-time Oscar winner and all-around acting titan Daniel Day Lewis has since stepped into the role and production is set to begin in just a matter of weeks. 

To the majority of audiences, Steven Spielberg isn't a director, but is the director.  As Superman is to superheroes, so is Spielberg to contemporary directors; his bearded face is the first that springs to mind at the mere mention of the word.  For the first time since 1993, we'll see two Spielberg-directed films hitting theaters this year, a mere eight days apart, and he's currently prepping his take on one of the most venerated figures in American history, but what comes after that?  In all likelihood it will be the large-scale science fiction tale Robopocalypse, as 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Pictures will be teaming up to co-finance the sure-to-be pricey production.

One of the many advantages Steven Spielberg enjoys when making a film is access to the very best actors available, pretty much all of whom are eager to work with the man behind Jaws, Schindler's List, E.T., Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Saving Private Ryan.  His latest, Lincoln, stars Daniel Day Lewis as the sixteenth American President and Sally Field as his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln.  Now, Tommy Lee Jones  and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are leading a laundry list of actors currently in negotiations to join Lincoln.