<p data-testid="paragraph-0">BERLIN, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Director Steven Spielberg, picking up a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival, said the prospect of making new films continued to excite him at 76 and unveiled new details of his planned HBO series.</p>
<p data-testid="paragraph-1">The director, whose credits include some of the biggest-grossing and best-loved works in cinema history, including "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" and "Jaws", has just finished two films back to back: the semi-autobiographical "The Fabelmans" and "West Side Story", a film of the classic Broadway musical.</p>
<p data-testid="paragraph-2">"Whatever seized me as a little kid is the same feeling I retained all those decades later," he told reporters on Tuesday. "When I find a book or a script or come up with an original idea that I think would make a good movie: that excitement ... supersedes everything."</p>
<p data-testid="paragraph-3">Spielberg, professing he "loves to work and needs to work", is finalizing a script left unfinished by his friend Stanley Kubrick at the time of his death in 1999.</p>
<p data-testid="paragraph-4">"We're mounting a large production for HBO based on Stanley's original script 'Napoleon'," he said. "A seven-part limited series."</p>
<p data-testid="paragraph-5">Reflecting on the past two years of frenetic film-making, Spielberg said the pandemic prompted him to revisit his childhood in "The Fabelmans".</p>
<p data-testid="paragraph-6">"My mom used to say: 'I've given you so much good material. When are you going to use that material?'" he said. "The fear I felt about the pandemic gave me the courage to tell my personal story."</p>
<p data-testid="paragraph-7">Spielberg, known for his accessible, compelling movies, advised would-be filmmakers to start with the story.</p>
<p data-testid="paragraph-8">"If you want to be a movie director, first of all, write," he said. "Because it's the stories that are going to get an audience to pay attention to you, not the shots."</p>
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<div>(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; Writing by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Richard Chang)</div>

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Still filming, Spielberg, 76, wins Berlin lifetime award