Minority Report (film) Spielberg also offered the role of Witwer to Javier Bardem, who turned it down. After "E.T.", Spielberg started to consult experts, and put more scientific research into his science fiction films. In 1999, he invited fifteen experts convened by Peter Schwartz and Stewart Brand to a hotel in Santa Monica for a three-day "think tank". He wanted to consult with the group to create a plausible "future reality" for the year 2054 as opposed to a more traditional "science fiction" setting. Dubbed the "think tank summit", the experts included architect Peter Calthorpe, author Douglas Coupland, urbanist and journalist Joel Garreau,
Technologies in Minority Report ideas for the film's technology to Roger Ebert before the film's release: News sources have noted the future technologies depicted in the film were prescient. "The Guardian" published a piece titled "Why Minority Report was spot on" in June 2010, and the following month "Fast Company" examined seven crime fighting technologies in the film similar to ones then currently appearing. It summarized that "the police state imagined in the Tom Cruise flick feels a bit more real every day." Other major media outlets such as the "Wall Street Journal" have published articles dedicated to this phenomenon, and National Public Radio