{"id":574842,"date":"2026-04-09T23:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574842\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T23:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T23:44:10","slug":"steven-spielberg-worked-on-interstellar-for-one-year-and-says-i-became-fascinated-with-it-before-dropping-out-it-was-a-much-better-movie-in-nolan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574842\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Spielberg Worked on \u2018Interstellar\u2019 for One Year and Says \u2018I Became Fascinated With It\u2019 Before Dropping Out: \u2018It Was a Much Better Movie in Nolan\u2019s Hands\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steven Spielberg revealed to Empire magazine (via Total Film<\/a>) on his \u201cDisclosure Day\u201d press tour that he was attached to direct \u201cInterstellar\u201d for only a year before dropping out and being replaced by Christopher Nolan. The Oscar winner was brought onto the project by producer Lynda Obst and \u00a0astrophysicist\u00a0Kip Thorne, who served as the movie\u2019s scientific consultant.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was involved with \u2018Interstellar\u2019 for a year\u2026 and I became fascinated with it,\u201d Spielberg admitted. \u201cI spent a lot of time at the [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] in Pasadena, California, talking to the scientists there and the aerospace engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n

More from Variety<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually hired Chris Nolan\u2019s brother [Jonathan] to write the first and second draft for me, but it didn\u2019t stick,\u201d he continued. \u201cJonah actually said, \u2018If there comes a point where you decide not to make this movie, I can tell you who\u2019s gonna grab it. He\u2019s already bugging me about it. And that\u2019s my brother Chris.\u2019 He was absolutely right. The second I decided not to make it, Chris jumped on board, probably the next day. \u2018Interstellar\u2019 was a much better movie in Chris Nolan\u2019s hands than it would have been in mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInterstellar\u201d opened in theaters in November 2014 and grossed $681 million worldwide during its initial run and scored five Oscar nominations, winning for best visual effects. Matthew McConaughey headlined the film as a NASA pilot who embarks on a space mission to save the planet from the dying. Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine, Timothee Chalamet and more appeared in the film.<\/p>\n

Nolan recently unpacked \u201cInterstellar\u201d with Chalamet during a March screening<\/a> in Los Angeles and spoke about the movie\u2019s jump from Spielberg project to Nolan vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight after we collaborated on \u2018Dark Knight,\u2019 my brother got the job and went to work with Steven. I get to call him Steven. He\u2019s Mr. Spielberg to you,\u201d Nolan told Chalamet. \u201cHe worked on it for a lot of years. It had incredible ideas and moved through all these different iterations, but until Steven was ready to make it, whatever it is, it never quite got that momentum. Steven went off to do another film, so it became available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nolan continued, \u201cI had a lot of conversations with Jonathan over the years and what he was doing and what his ambition was. I was excited by it. I was incredibly struck by his first act. I had been working on a time travel idea\u2026 things looking at time. I had half-baked projects that I hadn\u2019t committed to. When it became available, it was a case of me saying to Jonathan, \u2018How would you feel if I took this and tried to combine it with some of my ideas and change a bit with what it was?\u2019 He was fine with it. He could tell the spirit of what I was trying to do was to get to what he was initially excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reviews for \u201cInterstellar\u201d were far more mixed than Nolan\u2019s previous acclaimed efforts like \u201cThe Dark Knight\u201d and \u201cInterstellar.\u201d Many critics thought Nolan fumbled with the movie\u2019s more heartfelt and sentimental storyline, which happen to be specialities of Spielberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had some producer anonymously say of me, \u2018He is a cold guy who makes cold films.\u2019 Then it sort of stuck on me for several projects,\u201d Nolan remembered. \u201cThe reason I was attracted to my brother\u2019s first act is because it\u2019s about family and humanity, and it\u2019s deeply emotional. That\u2019s the film I wanted to make. It\u2019s a film that wears its heart on its sleeve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best of Variety<\/p>\n

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steven Spielberg revealed to Empire magazine (via Total Film) on his \u201cDisclosure Day\u201d press tour that he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[252823,15279,88,31706,206,16827],"class_list":{"0":"post-574842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-brother-chris","9":"tag-christopher-nolan","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-interstellar","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-steven-spielberg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}