{"id":731349,"date":"2026-06-12T07:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731349\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T07:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T07:07:12","slug":"steven-spielberg-was-rejected-by-james-bond-franchise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/731349\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Spielberg Was Rejected by James Bond Franchise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn this day and age, it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone ever turning down three-time Oscar winner Steven Spielberg<\/a>. But the filmmaker revealed that he was previously rejected multiple times after asking to direct a James Bond<\/a> movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a recent interview on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast<\/a>, the Disclosure Day director <\/a>was asked if he regrets not helming a 007 film.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have regrets that they didn\u2019t approach me to direct a Bond film,\u201d Spielberg clarified. \u201cI approached Cubby Broccoli [James Bond franchise producer] after Jaws was a big hit. I\u2019d always wanted to make a James Bond film from the day I saw Dr. No, so I called Cubby Broccoli after Jaws and volunteered. I said, \u2018If you need a director, I would love to direct one.\u2019 And he said no and he moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial filmmaker said he pitched himself again a few years later following the release of 1977\u2019s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. At the time, he recalled Broccoli reaching out, asking to use his film\u2019s iconic five-note musical melody in a scene in 1979\u2019s Moonraker.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019ll make you a deal. I\u2019ll give you permission to use the five notes if you let me direct a Bond film.\u2019 And he said no. But I gave him the five notes anyway,\u201d Spielberg recounted. \u201cThey consistently turned me down. He never explained why he wasn\u2019t letting me into the Bond family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, when one door closes (or refuses to open in this case), another door opens. Despite not getting the opportunity to direct a Bond pic, Spielberg actually found his way to another iconic film franchise: Indiana Jones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen 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, \u2018I have something better than Bond. It\u2019s called Indiana Smith,\u2019 which is what it was called at the time,\u201d The Fabelmans director explained. \u201cHe told me the premise of the Indiana Jones series, and that\u2019s how I got that job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe went on to helm four Indiana Jones movies, starting with 1981\u2019s Raiders of the Lost Ark.<\/p>\n

\n\tFast forward to today, and if Spielberg were to be asked to direct a Bond movie now<\/a>, he admitted, \u201cMy answer would be: \u2018You can\u2019t afford me.’\u201d Meanwhile, Dune director Denis Villeneuve has been tapped<\/a> to direct the next installment, the first from Amazon MGM Studios.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpielberg\u2019s latest film, Disclosure Day,<\/a> releases in theaters June 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In this day and age, it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone ever turning down three-time Oscar winner Steven Spielberg.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,134,119028,30108,344,10492],"class_list":["post-731349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-indiana-jones","tag-james-bond","tag-movies","tag-steven-spielberg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}