Steven Spielberg Was Supposed To Direct This '90s Sci-Fi Disaster Movie Blockbuster

In the summer of 1998, there were two big-budget studio pictures about giant asteroids/comets striking the Earth. Mimi Leder's "Deep Impact" was released in early May, and it was the more somber, scientifically accurate of the two. The film stars Morgan Freeman as a beleaguered U.S. president who has to face the possibility of an E.L.E. or extinction-level event. As all proper disaster films must, it features a large cast packed with name actors. Robert Duvall, Jon Favreau, Blair Underwood, Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, James Cromwell, and many others show up. 

The other film was Michael Bay's "Armageddon," the absolutely ridiculous action blockbuster version of the same story. This one is about brave astronauts who have to fly through space to meet the killer asteroid head-on and stars Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck, Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, and so on. Curiously, both were box office hits, and even at the time, folks noted the "twin" phenomenon. To this day, one still cannot mention either of these films without bringing up the other ... like I just did!

"Deep Impact" is definitely a "prestige" blockbuster compared to Bay's silly-ass sci-fi romp. Leder had already proven to be a capable handler of large-scale movies, having made her feature debut on "The Peacemaker" just one year prior. Having also directed episodes of a number of TV series, including "L.A. Law," "China Beach," and "ER," she took to movies well and helmed "Deep Impact" with aplomb.

As it so happens, though, Leder wasn't the first choice to direct "Deep Impact." Per a 1998 report by Starlog Magazine, Steven Spielberg was initially set to helm the film. He wasn't able to, however, as he became too busy overseeing his 1997 period piece "Amistad."

According to Starlog Magazine, "Deep Impact" actually began its life way back in the 1970s when producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown wanted to remake the 1951 Rudolph Maté movie "When Worlds Collide," a film about, well, planets colliding. According to Zanuck, that remake petered out when no one could settle on a script. Evidently, Anthony Burgess and Stirling Silliphant took a crack at it, but they didn't quite make what Zanuck wanted. 

The project, however, was revived (kinda) in the '90s when Steven Spielberg bought the film rights to Arthur C. Clarke's 1993 novel "The Hammer of God," a book about an asteroid heading toward the Earth and the efforts to deflect it. Zanuck and Spielberg teamed up, meaning that "Hammer of God" and the moribund "When Worlds Collide" kind of mashed together to become "Deep Impact." 

Zanuck maintained that Steven Spielberg liked the script for the new "Deep Impact" project and was happy to direct it. That being said, Zanuck knew that Disney was already working on "Armageddon" at the time, so there was suddenly a time crunch. Which movie was going to beat the other to theaters? Because Spielberg was in the midst of making "Amistad," he wouldn't have been able to rush "Deep Impact" into production, beating "Armageddon" to market. "We decided we couldn't wait," Zanuck is quoted as saying. "We didn't want to be the second comet picture out." Zanuck noted that, when two very similar films come out in a condensed timeframe, the first one usually tends to do better at the box office. 

Hence, Mimi Leder was hired to direct instead, with Spielberg taking an executive producer credit. The film beat "Armageddon" by about three months.

Despite Rochard Zanuck's best efforts, "Deep Impact" actually wasn't as big a hit as "Armageddon." On a hefty $80 million budget, "Deep Impact" made a wholly respectable $349.5 million at the box office. It wasn't deeply beloved by critics, however, as it currently holds a lukewarm 45% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 98 reviews. "Armageddon," meanwhile, cost a whopping $140 million, but it earned back $553.7 million. Michael Bay's movie was more or less received the same by critics, though, earning a mere 42% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 177 reviews. (Roger Ebert outright hated it.)

Although Mimi Leder's film was the "classier" of the two, "Armageddon" ended up getting the Oscar nominations. It was up for four Academy Awards, including its hit song "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" performed by Aerosmith. Between the two movies, that song may be the most significant thing to come out of the summer of 1998. The more lasting films from that year were comedies like "There's Something About Mary" and "Doctor Dolittle," animated features like "Mulan," adventure movies like "The Mask of Zorro," and Steven Spielberg's classic war picture "Saving Private Ryan." And who could forget the debacle of 1998's "Godzilla?" It seems that the giant comet films were but two drops in a bigger bucket.

Of course, since Spielberg's "The Hammer of God" project morphed so dramatically into "Deep Impact," they were no longer the same movie. Take a gander, and you'll find that Arthur C. Clarke wasn't credited on Leder's movie. Of course, this also means that if Spielberg still wanted to make a film version of "The Hammer of God," he (or someone else) could.