Steven Spielberg's next movie will be released in 2026.

The legendary director is to helm a "new original event film" that is being backed by Universal Pictures and is scheduled for release on May 15, 2026.

It is not clear what the picture will be about although it was previously reported that Spielberg was crafting a UFO story.

David Koepp – who has worked with Spielberg previously on movies including 'Jurassic Park' and 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' – is writing the script while Kristie Macosko Krieger will produce the film.

Spielberg's most recent flick was 2022's 'The Fabelmans' – which was loosely based on his childhood and early years behind the camera – and explained that the "fear" he felt during the coronavirus pandemic inspired him to make the personal movie.

The 77-year-old filmmaker said: "The fear I felt about the pandemic gave me the courage to tell my personal story.

"(It made me ask) if there was one movie I hadn't made yet that I would now have time to make, what would that be?

"I always wanted to tell the story about my mother and my father, my sisters, and this amazing struggle between art and family.

"It's come out in all my films. All my films are really personal, and many of them are about family. But nothing that is so specific to my experiences as 'The Fabelmans'."

The 'Jaws' helmer described how he was in the unfamiliar position of being uncertain what he was going to work on next after 'The Fabelmans' had been released.

Spielberg said last year: "I don't know what I'm going to do next. I have no idea.

"And it's kind of a nice feeling, and it's also a horrible feeling. It's nice that I can actually have control of my life again and make my own choices. But I need to work and I love to work."