Steven Spielberg Was Rejected by The James Bond Franchise Twice. Now He Says the Franchise Can't Afford Him
There's something almost poetic about the fact that the man who gave us so many incredible classic films spent years quietly trying to get into the Bond business, only to get the door slammed in his face… Twice.
Steven Spielberg stopped by The Rest Is Entertainment podcast while doing press for his new film Disclosure Day, and in classic Spielberg fashion, he managed to turn a rejection story into one of the more entertaining anecdotes in recent Hollywood memory.
It all started with a phone call after "Jaws" changed cinema forever. "I approached Cubby after 'Jaws' was a big hit," Spielberg said. "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. I said, 'If you need a director, I would love to direct one.' And he said no."
The guy who just invented the summer blockbuster picked up the phone and offered to make a Bond movie, and the producers turned him away. Crazy!
But Spielberg, being Spielberg, didn't give up. A few years later, after Close Encounters of the Third Kind hit theaters, franchise producer Cubby Broccoli came calling with a different kind of ask.
He wanted to use the film's iconic five-note melody in an upcoming scene for Moonraker. Spielberg saw his opening.
"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," Spielberg remembered.
"So they consistently turned me down, at least, Broccoli did. He never explained why he wasn't letting me into the Bond family."
He gave them the notes anyway. Even after being turned down again. That’s a pretty generous move, or the most stubborn, depending on how you look at it.
What makes this story great is where it goes next. Spielberg was in Hawaii in 1977 with his friend George Lucas, right on the eve of a little movie called Star Wars: A New Hope , and he shared his Bond frustrations with him.
"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," the director continued.
"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.'"
The franchise rejection that led directly to Indiana Jones is one of those Hollywood butterfly-effect moments that rewrites film history if you pull at the thread.
No Bond rejection, no casual Hawaii conversation, no whip-cracking archaeologist. It's the kind of story that makes you wonder what else is only one "no" away from becoming something legendary.
And Spielberg isn't done cataloguing the franchises that slipped through his fingers, or that he chose to let go. He was also offered the keys to Harry Potter and walked away from that one too, though for entirely different reasons.
"There were several films I chose not to make. I chose to turn down the first 'Harry Potter' to basically spend that next year and a half with my family, my young kids growing up. So I'd sacrificed a great franchise, which today looking back I'm very happy to have done, to be with my family."
Between Bond, Potter, and whatever else he passed on over the decades, Spielberg has arguably turned down more cultural landmarks than most directors ever get the chance to touch. And yet somehow, his actual filmography still looks like that.
The man who got told no by James Bond ended up creating Indiana Jones. The man who skipped Harry Potter spent more time with his kids. It's hard to argue with any of those outcomes.
Disclosure Day opens in theaters June 12.