We may be four years away from Los Angeles hosting the 2028 Olympics, but if Hollywood is famous for anything, it’s a glitzy, starry early tease. Filming from a Universal Studios soundstage in Studio City, California, legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg delivers a welcome to the 2024 Paris Olympics that ties the perfect link between cinema and these historic games. The short, entitled ‘Land of Stories,’ begins with Spielberg walking onto a set with a big blue-screen behind him that eventually transports him to a street corner above the Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the background, all courtesy of his friend George Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic.
As Spielberg narrates, with clips of his films and past Olympic games interspersed, he explains the personal importance “telling stories” has for him. In the short, he said, “From the very origins of the idea, The Olympics have always been what you might call, the perfect template for a story. Drama, action, suspense, and victory or defeat, plus a great musical score. And that’s before we even account for the characters.”
Spielberg continues by reveling in the “human spectacle” the games offer viewers and how looking past the incredible feats of these athletes reveals the kind of narratives that win Oscars. He also expresses how, like in cinema, if you spend enough time watching each match, you’ll eventually find your own story in someone else’s. This statement is followed by images of U.S. athletes Katie Ladecky, Sha’Carri Richardson, Simone Biles, and Noah Lyles. Watch the full four-minute video below.
Introducing other Team USA members, Beyoncé also lent her talents to a video for NBC Sports that features her in “Cowboy Carter” get-up, dancing and singing along to her song from that album, “YA YA.” Not only her, but a whole host of Team USA athletes, all snapping and clapping as they welcome viewers to the 2024 Summer Olympics.
“Get a look at America, y’all,” Beyoncé tells us as images of athletes posing and competing flash by. “These hopes and dreams. These superstars that represent us, the people of this big, bold, beautiful, complicated nation.”
Watch Beyoncé’s video below.
