Steven Spielberg Wanted To Direct A Movie In This Iconic Franchise

Steven Spielberg was always destined to become the legendary director he is today. He grew up with a deep love for movies and was making his own amateur films long before he briefly studied the subject at California State University, Long Beach.

During his formative years, several films played a vital role in shaping his sensibility, beginning with "Lawrence of Arabia" (which Spielberg has described as "the film that set me on my journey"). But there were several other hugely influential movies of the era that were nothing like that 1962 epic. Most notably, any kid coming of age in the 1960s was going to be a fan of James Bond, and that was no different for Spielberg, who has made no secret of his love for 007.

​​The franchise has long been a magnet for big-name filmmakers, with Amazon recently hiring the perfect director for James Bond 26 in Denis Villeneuve. But for the first two decades of its existence, the Bond saga stuck with familiar names, rotating through Terrence Young (without whom, Sean Connery's Bond would have failed), Guy Hamilton, and Lewis Gilbert. That might have had something to do with why Spielberg never actually got to direct a Bond film, even though it was always his dream to do so.

In a 2011 interview with IndieWire, Steven Spielberg was asked which franchise he would choose to direct at the time if he had his own way. In response, the director cited overseeing England's greatest spy as a lifelong dream of his. "When I first started making movies, the only franchise I cared about and wanted to be part of was James Bond," he said. "When I started out as a TV director, my pie-in-the-sky dream was to make a little movie that would get some notoriety, and then [the late Bond franchise producer, Alfred R.] "Cubby" Broccoli would call me and ask me to direct the next James Bond picture." As Spielberg went on to note, he could never actually convince the legendary Bond producer to hire him, adding, "and now, sadly, they can't afford me."

What might a Spielbergan Bond have looked like? Well, probably a lot like the movies of the 1960s, on which he grew up. The director's film debut, the TV movie "Duel," arrived in 1971, the same year that Sean Connery returned to the role that had made him a star in "Diamonds Are Forever" — arguably an underrated James Bond movie deserving of more respect. Based on the fact that Spielberg came up in the 1970s and became a big name following 1975's "Jaws," that would have been when he was expecting to receive the call from Cubby Broccoli. Would he have done his best to bring back Connery for one more go round, prior to his shark scuba diving extravaganza that was 1983's "Never Say Never Again?" Or would Connery have tried to convince the young filmmaker to make his unmade Bond movie that featured robot sharks? At this point, we'll never know, but we've at least got plenty of Bond influence in the Spielberg cannon thus far.

Back in 2012, the year Daniel Craig's "Skyfall" debuted, Film School Rejects asked former Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli why Spielberg hadn't yet directed a 007 feature. In response, Broccoli (who has since handed over control of the Bond franchise to Amazon), replied:

"Well, early on it was very sweet, because when he was a young filmmaker he approached my father. My dad said, 'Yeah, kid, ya gotta get some more [films] under your belt.' Years later, when he did 'Schindler's List,' my father wrote to him about how much he loved it. Spielberg then sent a really sweet note saying, 'Now will you let me direct a Bond movie?' [Laughs] My father said, 'Now I can't afford you!' That's the way of the world."

It seems more likely that Broccoli was interested in using British filmmakers to oversee the 007 franchise. Whatever the case, the same year that Barbara Broccoli gave that interview, Spielberg told the Daily Mail, that he was indeed turned down by Cubby Broccoli but that he "never asked again" after that and instead made the Indiana Jones films. The Bond saga's influence on those movies is easy to recognize, and not just in the figure of Henry Jones Jr. himself, whose globe-hopping adventures were at least in part influenced by 007.

Spielberg's inaugural Indiana Jones film, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," opens with its protagonist in the midst of an adventure, in this case infiltrating the Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors. This in media res opening was taken directly from Bond, who always starts his cinematic outings in similar fashion. Of course, Spielberg also cast Sean Connery himself as Henry Jones Sr. for 1989's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." There's even a James Bond Easter egg in "Jaws."

So, while he's yet to actually direct a Bond movie himself, it's not as if we have absolutely no idea what his vision for England's greatest spy might look like. Still, any film fan will surely feel a pang of regret that we'll never see an official Spielberg-helmed 007 outing.