"The World of Halo," based on the massively successful gaming franchise, will be exclusive to Xbox. “For me, the ‘Halo’ universe is an amazing opportunity for the intersection” of “mythmaking and technology,” Spielberg said via video.

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Cooper bought the rights to the film adaptation of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's book in May 2012, but fast-tracked the project after Kyle's death in early 2013. Kyle was shot dead by veteran Eddie Routh, thought to have been struggling with PTSD.

Cooper will star as Chris Kyle, and intends to use the role to illuminate high-profile issues, telling NPR's Terry Gross that Kyle's story "needs to be told and it’s also relevant on two fronts. One, gun control, and two, the need to address this — the many soldiers that are coming back with post-traumatic stress disorder.”

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Trevorrow, 36, rose to prominence with "Safety Not Guaranteed," a comedy starring Aubrey Plaza and Jake Johnson, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival and recently won best first screenplay award at the Independent Spirit Awards.

Before "Safety Not Guaranteed," Trevorrow had directed one made-for-TV film and a documentary.

The first two "Jurassic Park" films, released in 1993 and 1997, respectively, earned $914.7m and $618.6m in the global box office. "Jurassic Park 3" earned considerably less, at $368m, but expectations for "Jurassic Park 4" are promising as loyal fans have now waited for over a decade since the third film.

Spielberg will stay on the project as a producer; Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver ("Rise of the Planet of the Apes") will pen the script.

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Spielberg told the Times:

" 'About two years ago, I was going through a lot of my dad's things. We found three boxes full of my dad's love letters to my mom and her letters back to him. So I set up the video camera and my dad and I went through them. Some were too personal but my dad (who is now 96) read others out loud while I filmed him. At the bottom of one of the boxes, I found three sealed envelopes of about 9 by 4 inches each.

" 'When I opened them, it was the negatives of 400 still photographs which my father hadn't gotten developed. I had a lab print each one as an 8 by 10 inch photo, and I saw my father's entire history in Karachi, Bombay and Calcutta and other cities in India during WWII.' "

"' That was the first time I really became aware of what my father did in the war,' " said Spielberg.

Spielberg said the script has been written, but is now looking for a director, cast and locations. The new project will be Spielberg's first in India since he shot "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" in 1983.

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Gilles Jacob, the festival's president, recounted how he had been trying to get the award-winning director to head the jury for years - but the American was always working. Finally, this year, Spielberg got in touch.

"When this year I was told `E.T., phone home,' I understood and immediately replied: `At last!'" Jacob said in a statement posted on the festival's website Thursday.

Spielberg, who was nominated but didn't win the directing Oscar for his biopic "Lincoln" this week, takes the reins from Italian Nanni Moretti. The 66th Cannes festival takes place in the glamorous French Mediterranean resort from May 15 to 26.

Spielberg's presence will likely give more of an American flavor this year to the Cannes festival, a mélange of intellectual international cinema and Hollywood glamour. Jury presidents in the festival's seven-decade history have included such figures as Tennessee Williams, Ingrid Bergman, Roman Polanski and Francis Ford Coppola.

Spielberg has had several films show at Cannes, and "E.T." had its world premiere there in 1982. His first film, "Sugarland Express," won best screenplay at Cannes in 1974.

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On Monday's radio broadcast, Limbaugh said he sent the widely derided Oscars host an "attaboy note." MacFarlane's response, according to Rush? "You know what? I kind of understand how you conservatives feel about the media now."

Limbaugh was fired up about the Oscars, and saw evidence of a liberal conspiracy to create a totalitarian world, and also a political tug-of-war between Steven Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein.

Speaking of Michelle Obama's appearance via video link to hand out the best picture Oscar with Jack Nicholson, Limbaugh said:

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One possible reason? The New York Times has a theory they won't attribute to anyone, but which they pushed in stories both Friday and today: "Lincoln" and its producers "seemed to overreach by getting Bill Clinton to introduce a clip at the Golden Globes last month." The film seemed to bid for recognition as more than a movie, as something serious and grave, in its marketing materials as well, with For Your Consideration ads describing noble sacrifice and exhorting "His Story is Our Story." At a time when Congress is held in low esteem (to say the least), a reminder that the film's depiction of a fractious Congress united by a charismatic leader is somehow meant to be contemporary hardly inspires.

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The best picture presenter, the marquee spot of the evening, is a low-pressure, high-reward job -- and it used to reward rarely seen legends of Hollywood (Lillian Gish in 1981, Loretta Young in 1982, Laurence Olivier in 1985), or exciting, ascendant stars (Eddie Murphy in 1988, Cher in 1989, Jack Nicholson in 1972 -- before he'd won an Oscar). Given to the right person, it can honor a new star or pay homage to a star who isn't so familiar as to be unremarkable.

But these days, it's more likely to be a present-day Jack Nicholson than either a hot young thing or an intriguing recluse; the actor has presented seven times, and was one of the two final presenters announced by the academy today. (The other one? Dustin Hoffman, who's presented the trophy twice.)

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But everything is poised to change for "Argo." The precursor awards for Affleck and his film have been rolling in and building momentum for his Oscar campaign: The actor-turned-director picked up trophies for directing from the Critics' Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, the Directors Guild of America, and the UK's BAFTA Awards. As voting ends today, "Argo" is perceived to be in the lead: the aggregate Oscar prognosticators at Movie City News's authoritative Gurus O' Gold have overwhelmingly declared "Argo" the film to beat for best picture.

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"[W]hen two of three members of the Nutmeg State’s House delegation voted to uphold slavery, I could not believe my own eyes and ears," said the Nutmeg State lawmaker in an open letter to Steven Spielberg that arrives just as Oscar voting begins. (The letter was released on Tuesday; final Oscar voting begins on Friday.)

"Lincoln" is only the latest movie this year to come in for criticism as to its veracity -- "Zero Dark Thirty," about the killing of Osama bin Laden, and "Argo," about the rescue of American hostages in Iran, have both been scrutinized. And historians have questioned the framing of "Lincoln" for portraying the president as too instrumental in ending slavery, an institution that was collapsing throughout the South.

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"Smash," the critically derided show that maintained a baseline decent audience last spring (composed of so-called hate-watchers), isn't even fun to hate anymore: Only 4.5 million viewers tuned in to last night's second-season premiere, with a teensy 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic.

The series was heavily promoted during last year's Super Bowl and began its life as a promising collaboration between new NBC president Robert Greenblatt and director Steven Spielberg. Show creator and playwright Theresa Rebeck departed last year after a power struggle with the network; new showrunner Joshua Safran (late of "Gossip Girl") gave the season premiere a more professional, less haphazard sheen.

NBC, which spent fall in recovery, buoyed by football, "The Voice" and new hit "Revolution" -- none of which is currently on the air  -- can only hope that "The Voice" can work its magic on the schedule when it returns.

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"On a practical and political level, it does seem illogical to me to make a case against torture by ignoring or denying the role it played in U.S. counter-terrorism policy and practices," Bigelow writes, in response to critiques that the movie overemphasizes the role of torture, that the creators of this work of "reported film" have been spun by the CIA. The disclaimer attached to the film, “Based on Firsthand Accounts of Actual Events," hasn't mollified critics.

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"It coheres, in some ways, very well, and, in some ways, not so well," says Bruce Levine, a historian from the University of Illinois who just published the well-received Civil War history "The Fall of the House of Dixie." "I give them a mixed review."

The film's focus on a narrow period of history — from after the 1864 election to Abraham Lincoln's assassination — necessarily overemphasizes Lincoln's role in ending an institution that was nearing its death, said Levine. "There are fundamental gaps in 'Lincoln.' Watching the film, you don't know that by the time of the events described, slavery is already badly undermined — slaves have been running away from their masters in border states and Confederate states even before fighting began."

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Also nominated were past winners Kathryn Bigelow for her Osama bin Laden thriller "Zero Dark Thirty"; Tom Hooper for his musical "Les Miserables"; and Ang Lee for his lost-at-sea story "Life of Pi."

Rounding out the Directors Guild lineup is first-time nominee Ben Affleck for his Iran hostage-crisis tale "Argo."

The Directors Guild field is one of Hollywood's most-accurate forecasts for who will be in the running at the Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Thursday. The winner at the Directors Guild almost always goes on to win the directing prize at the Oscars, too. Only six times in the 64-year history of the guild awards has the winner there failed to follow up with an Oscar.

Besides the record number of feature-film nominations, Spielberg also has won the Directors Guild prize a record three times, for "The Color Purple," "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan," along with directing Oscars for the latter two. He received the guild's lifetime-achievement award in 2000.

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Despite the fact that the film focuses on a short period of time in Lincoln’s presidency and deals primarily with the political cut and thrust associated with the passage of the 13th Amendment, there is a real sense in which the film can be described as deeply philosophical. Lincoln is portrayed as a man of discipline, concentration, and energy, all characteristics that sociologist Max Weber defined as part of the serious politician’s vocation. By forging an effective and realized political character — one aspect of Weber’s definition of charismatic authority — an astute politician can change the nature of power in society. By controlling his all-too-human vanity, he can avoid the two deadly political sins of lack of objectivity and irresponsibility. For Weber, a certain “distance to things and men” was required to abide by an “ethic of responsibility” for the weighty decisions that leaders are often required to make.

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