‘Now he can’t afford it’: Steven Spielberg was turned down twice to direct Bond | Video

Steven Spielberg said he was turned down twice by the makers of James Bond films – and now he couldn’t make it.

Spielberg talks to The Rest Is Entertainment podcast and was asked if he had any “regrets” about not directing a 007 movie. Spielberg said he approached Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the famous Bond actor who worked on the “official” Bond films between Dr No in 1962 and License to Kill in 1989, after Spielberg’s 1975 shark thriller Jaws was a big hit, but was rejected. Spielberg said: “I always wanted to make a James Bond film from the day I saw Dr No. So I called Cubby Broccoli after Jaws and offered. I said, if you want a director, I’d love to direct. And he said, no. And he went on.”

Spielberg said that Broccoli contacted him after the release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 to request the use of the title of the five-song soundtrack that became 1979’s Moonraker and said that he tried to work out a deal with Broccoli to direct a Bond film, but was also turned down. “Cubby called me back after Close Encounters came out and it was a big hit… and he said, we want to use five scripts in Moonraker. And I said, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you permission to use five scripts if you let me direct a Bond film. And he said, no. But I gave him the five scripts.”

According to Spielberg, this story directly led to his work on Raiders of the Lost Ark; when he told George Lucas during the release of Star Wars how he had been rejected by Broccoli, Lucas responded by offering him his new job. “That’s when George said, “I’ve got something better than Bond.” It’s called Indiana Smith, which it was called at the time. And he told me what happened to the Indiana Jones series.

Spielberg added: “(Broccoli) didn’t explain why he wouldn’t let me be in the Bond family… (but) if he asked me to do a Bond film now, my answer would be: you can’t.”