You cannot suddenly direct like Spielberg just like you cannot suddenly decide to play like Michael Jordan. It's not a switch that you turn on like a video game level - not with the highly complex methodology he does. It doesn't even matter what Spielberg says because that's politics he's the master of that as well, which he seemed to be getting flack from the DGA for Poltergeist at the time. The proof is in the visual semantics and construction of the movie. You don't need someone to tell you Michael Jackson is singing a song, and you don't need for someone to tell you Spielberg is directing a movie.

@JosephKahn There were days that Tobe Hooper didn’t even come out of his trailer.

@AVARY @JosephKahn What have you heard, Roger?

@equality2112 @JosephKahn Spielberg taking the reins was like slow boiling a frog.

I think what you heard was about post-production. Hooper spent the requisite three months putting a director’s cut together with associate editors and even the sound engineers (maybe throwing on the cutting room floor all of the Spielberg moments!), then he was forced to sit back for over half a year hearing how Spielberg storyboarded and cut everything.

@AVARY @equality2112 @JosephKahn He wanted heather o rourke I can see why hooper would stay in his trailer