The grand vision Spielberg laid out in 1994 of “a place driven by ideas and the people who have them,” an innovative twenty-first-century studio encompassing all forms of moving imagery on a high-tech, cutting-edge “campus,” collided with some of the oldest obstacles in the business. Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen found their goal of total independence from the Hollywood system frustratingly elusive, but as Spielberg juggled his responsibilities as a mogul with his primary career as a director over the following years, he still managed to maintain a remarkable degree of filmmaking autonomy. Did the myriad problems of running a studio, and the growing complications of life as a billionaire celebrity, impact the quality of his work as a director? If so, the effect, paradoxically enough, seemed largely positive. Spielberg’s penchant for multitasking, which he finds vital to keeping himself creatively stimulated, stood him in good stead as he took on responsibilities that would give most people vertigo.
