Steven Soderbergh Once Pitched a Wild Two-Movie James Bond Plan and It Sounds Awesome

Before he was circling Star Wars with The Hunt For Ben Solo, Steven Soderbergh had his sights set on reinventing James Bond in a way we’ve never seen on screen. It’s the kind of creative swing that makes you wish it had actually happened.

Soderbergh revealed that he brought not one, but two very different Bond ideas to longtime franchise producer Barbara Broccoli back in 2008. One of them would’ve completely broken away from the mainline series, while the other would’ve leaned hard into blockbuster spectacle with Daniel Craig still in the tux.

The first pitch is easily the more fascinating of the two. Soderbergh wanted to build a separate Bond timeline that existed alongside the main franchise, but played by its own rules. He explained:

"I had pitched in 2008 the idea to Barbara Broccoli of a parallel franchise. [It would be] cheaply made, where you get people like me, who are interested in that approach to do one of these things," Soderbergh told The Playlist, when asked about his first idea.

"Set in the ’60s, R-rated, violent, sexy. Fictional backstory to real historical events, different actor, different universe...

"It’s just another lane that exists totally separate from the normal Bond movies. I was just kind of, you know, pitching a hardcore auteur, low-budget period Bond."

That concept is something really cool and could’ve changed how we think about long-running franchises. A stripped-down, filmmaker-driven Bond series set in the 1960s with an R-rated edge? That’s the kind of creative risk studios rarely take with billion-dollar properties, but the fans would’ve loved it.

His second idea went in the opposite direction. Instead of scaling things down, Soderbergh wanted to go big with a modern Bond story led by Craig. He didn’t spill many specifics, but described it as a "contemporary extravaganza." This project would’ve taken the place of Spectre, which hit theaters in 2015.

Soderbergh didn’t want to pick just one approach, though. He wanted both ideas to move forward as a package deal, which may have ultimately sunk the whole thing. As he put it:

“To be fair to them, it really was a twofer," he continued. "I was like, I want to do both, I have ideas for both. But it’s all or nothing. You’ve either got to do both of them, you can’t have just one or the other, and I think that was just – that was a little aggressive."

Yeah… asking a studio to greenlight two radically different Bond movies at the same time was probably a tough sell, even for someone with Soderbergh’s track record.

It’s fun to think about what could’ve been. One timeline delivering gritty, filmmaker-driven espionage stories, and another continuing the high-budget spectacle fans expect. That kind of dual approach feels a lot more common today, especially with studios experimenting across streaming and theatrical releases.

The Bond franchise is moving forward in a more traditional way for now. A new installment is in development with Denis Villeneuve set to direct and Stephen Knight writing the script. The film is expected to land in theaters around 2028, and it’ll introduce a fresh take on the iconic spy.

As for Soderbergh, he’s currently promoting his latest project, The Christophers, and it doesn’t sound like he’s looking to revisit past franchise pitches. That includes his scrapped The Hunt for Ben Solo idea, which will stay firmly in the “what if” category.

Still, it’s hard not to imagine how cool a ‘60s-set, R-rated Bond series would’ve been. That’s the kind of creative gamble that could’ve shaken up the entire 007 franchise.