Steven Spielberg Has Finally Finished ‘The Post’

At Monday’s post-screening Soho House Academy reception for filmmaker Rebecca Miller‘s long-in-the-works HBO documentary about her father, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” was family friend Steven Spielberg, whose foundation provided bridge financing for this intimate family portrait of the “Death of a Salesman” playwright who was once married to Marilyn Monroe.

Spielberg told me he had just locked final cut of his anticipated Watergate era drama “The Post” (Twentieth Century Fox, December 22), which stars Meryl Streep as Washington Post owner Katharine Graham and Tom Hanks as editor Ben Bradlee. Spielberg will complete the final sound mix with John Williams’ score next Monday. Fox will book late November screenings to meet critics’ group deadlines.

Spielberg is also working closely with ILM on the massive number of visual effects for his next epic, ’80s-inflected “Ready Player One” (Warner Bros., March 30), based on the 2011 Ernest Cline sci-fi novel, which wrapped principal photography a year ago. Spielberg said he spends three three-hour meetings a week going over visual effects with ILM.

“This is the most difficult movie I’ve done since ‘Saving Private Ryan,'” he said. It stars Tye Sheridan (“Mud”), Olivia Cooke (“Me, Earl and the Dying Girl”) and as the villain, Australian Ben Mendelsohn (“Bloodline”), who could land a Supporting Actor nomination for Joe Wright’s “Darkest Hour” as King George VI.