A few heads were turned last year when it was announced that James Bond had managed to attract one of the biggest names in blockbuster filmmaking to helm the next instalment of the iconic spy franchise, in Dune and Arrival filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.
Well, it turns out that once upon a time the series might have been able to call upon an even bigger name to take on a 007 outing: none other than the great Steven Spielberg.
The legendary director – whose new film Disclosure Day has just arrived in UK cinemas – has revealed that he tried to direct a Bond film on numerous occasions in the 1970s, and even made a personal plea to producer Cubby Broccoli in the immediate aftermath of Jaws back in 1975.
"I’d always wanted to make a James Bond film from the day I saw Dr No, so I called Cubby after Jaws and volunteered," he explained during an appearance on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast.
"I said, 'If you need a director, I would love to direct one.' And he said no."
A few years later, Broccoli and Spielberg were back in dialogue – this time because the former hoped to use the famous five-note musical sequence from Close Encounters of the Third Kind in Moonraker. And Spielberg responded with a counter offer.
"I said, 'I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you permission to use the five notes if you let me direct a Bond film.’ And he said no. But I gave him the five notes anyway," he recalled.
"So they consistently turned me down – at least, Broccoli did. He never explained why he wasn’t letting me into the Bond family."
It's a fun exercise to imagine what a Spielberg-directed Bond film might have looked like, but it's pretty clear that the ship has now sailed on that front – and the director acknowledged that much himself later in the interview.
View Green Video on the source website"When I told that story to George Lucas in 1977, when we were in Hawaii together getting ready for the release of Star Wars: A New Hope,' he said, ‘I have something better than Bond. It’s called Indiana Smith,’ which is what it was called at the time," he revealed.
"He told me the premise of the Indiana Jones series, and that’s how I got that job. So if they ever asked me to make a Bond film now, my answer would be: 'You can’t afford me!'"
And Bond isn't the only iconic British fictional character that Spielberg may have directed in an alternative timeline. He also recalled how he had been approached to helm the first Harry Potter film before he turned it down, with the job eventually going to Home Alone director Chris Columbus.
Spielberg's aforementioned new film Disclosure Day sees him return to the subject of aliens – previously covered in Close Encounters, ET and War of the Worlds – and has been broadly positively received by critics, including a three-star review from us.
Disclosure Day is now showing in UK cinemas.
Check out more of our Film coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.
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