Steven Spielberg Reveals He Was Repeatedly Rejected by the Bond Franchise and Has a Five-Word Response Ready If They Ever Come Knocking

Few careers in Hollywood carry the kind of mythic weight that Steven Spielberg’s does, and yet even the most celebrated directors carry stories of doors that were shut in their faces. As the legendary filmmaker makes the rounds promoting his new sci-fi thriller ‘Disclosure Day’, one chapter from his past has resurfaced to remind audiences just how differently cinema history could have unfolded.

Spielberg appeared on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, hosted by Richard Osman and Marina Hyde, during the press tour for ‘Disclosure Day’, which opens in theatres on June 12. The conversation quickly turned to a decades-old obsession, his lifelong desire to direct a ‘James Bond‘ film, and the producer who repeatedly stood in his way.

The director revealed that his fixation with 007 began the moment he first watched ‘Dr. No’, and that after ‘Jaws’ turned him into Hollywood’s biggest box office draw, he personally rang up iconic franchise producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli to volunteer his services, only to be flatly refused. That rejection, painful as it was, would not be the last. When Broccoli later approached Spielberg seeking permission to use the famous five-note melody from ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ in ‘Moonraker’, Spielberg saw an opening and offered a deal, telling the producer he could have the notes in exchange for a chance to direct a Bond film. Broccoli said no again, though Spielberg gave him the notes regardless.

Spielberg recalled that Broccoli “never explained why he wasn’t letting me into the Bond family,” a silence that apparently made the rejections sting all the more. Now, with the franchise firmly in the hands of Amazon’s MGM Studios, Spielberg told the podcast hosts that if the call ever came today, his answer would be short and pointed: “You can’t afford me.“

As it turned out, those repeated rejections paved the way for one of cinema’s most beloved adventures. When Spielberg vented his frustration to George Lucas during a trip to Hawaii in 1977, Lucas told him he had something even better than Bond, and pitched what would eventually become the ‘Indiana Jones’ series, handing Spielberg the job on the spot. The concept was then called “Indiana Smith,” and the beach conversation that produced it now reads as one of the great accidental pivots in film history.

The irony runs deep, given that ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’, the Bond film that would likely have been Spielberg’s had Broccoli said yes, featured a man-eating shark and a villain literally named Jaws, an unmistakable tribute to his own film. Instead of directing the spy who borrowed from him, Spielberg built a rival franchise that out-grossed Bond at the very same 1981 box office, with ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ earning $212 million domestically against ‘For Your Eyes Only’s’ $55 million.

With Amazon now holding the keys to 007’s future and the search for a new Bond still very much underway, Spielberg’s comments land with a particular kind of timing. The man Cubby Broccoli turned away is now arguably the most decorated director alive, and he is not letting the franchise forget it. Given everything that came out of those rejections, it is worth asking: do you think a Spielberg-directed Bond film would have been better or worse than what ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ gave us instead?