Steven Spielberg's Attempts To Direct A James Bond Film Didn't Quite Go To Plan

Over the course of his career, Steven Spielberg has directed every genre possible, from action blockbusters to musicals and powerful war films.

However, there is one film franchise that’s always eluded him.

Speaking on the podcast The Rest Is Entertainment, the Oscar-winning filmmaker revealed that he was turned down not once but twice by the producers of the James Bond film.

When they asked if he regretted not ever directing a 007 movie, Spielberg explained that he had previously approached the former Bond producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli about working on the franchise – only to be rejected.

“I’d always wanted to make a James Bond film from the day I saw Dr No,” the Saving Private Ryan director explained.

“So, I called Cubby Broccoli after Jaws and I volunteered. I said, ‘if you need a director, I would love to direct one’. And he said no. And he moved on.”

Broccoli, who died in 1996, then made contact with Spielberg again in 1977, after the success of Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, to request permission to use part of the film’s iconic musical theme in a Bond movie.

Spielberg recalled: “Cubby called me again after Close Encounters came out – and that was a big hit – and said, ‘we’d like to use the five notes in Moonraker’. And 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, ‘nope’. But I gave him the five notes anyway.”

In good news for film fans, that second Bond rejection led to Spielberg working on Raiders Of The Lost Ark.

When he told George Lucas about his failure to land the Bond gig, the Star Wars filmmaker proposed they work on Indiana Jones together. “That’s how I got that job,” he explained.

Spielberg also admitted he’s still not sure why the Bond producer never hired him for the franchise, but did joke: “If they ever asked me to make a Bond film now, my answer would be: you can’t afford me.”

Dune director Denis Villeneuve is helming the next, currently-unnamed Bond film, although there is still no hint on who will step into that iconic tuxedo and play the iconic spy character next.

Spielberg’s latest film, Disclosure Day is in cinemas now.