Editing Empire of the Sun (film) (section)

===Development===
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| image1 = Steven Spielberg by Gage Skidmore.jpg
| image2 =Image-Tom Stoppard 1 (cropped).jpg
| footer = Director [[Steven Spielberg]] (left) and screenwriter [[Tom Stoppard]]
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[[Warner Bros.]] purchased the [[film rights]], intending [[Harold Becker]] to direct and [[Robert Shapiro (filmmaker)|Robert Shapiro]] to produce.<ref name="faber" /> [[Tom Stoppard]] wrote the first draft of the screenplay, on which Ballard briefly collaborated.<ref name="visit" /> Becker dropped out, and [[David Lean]] came to direct with Spielberg as producer. Lean explained, "I worked on it for about a year and in the end I gave it up because I thought it was too similar to a [[diary]]. It was well-written and interesting, but I gave it to Steve."<ref name="faber">[[#refMcBride1997|McBride 1997]], p. 392.</ref> Spielberg felt "from the moment I read [[J. G. Ballard]]'s novel I secretly wanted to direct myself."<ref name="faber" /> Spielberg found the project to be very personal. As a child, his favourite film was Lean's ''[[The Bridge on the River Kwai]]'', which similarly takes place in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Spielberg's fascination with World War II and [[List of aircraft of World War II|the aircraft of that era]] was stimulated by his father's stories of his experience as a [[radioman|radio operator]] on [[North American B-25 Mitchell]] bombers in the [[China Burma India Theatre of World War II|China-Burma Theater]].<ref name="faber" /> Spielberg hired [[Menno Meyjes]] to do an uncredited re-write before Stoppard was brought back to write the [[shooting script]].<ref name="visit" />