Saucy minx Steven Spielberg makes sure Bond franchise knows it missed its shot with him

After years of being rejected from directing a Bond movie, Spielberg now has a reply at the ready if the franchise comes knocking: "You can't afford me."

By William Hughes | June 10, 2026 | 9:51pm

Steven Spielberg, Photo: Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney

Film News Steven Spielberg

Saucy minx Steven Spielberg makes sure Bond franchise knows it missed its shot with him

The fact that Steven Spielberg never made a James Bond movie is actually kind of surprising—including, it sounds like, to Spielberg himself, who repeatedly petitioned former series producer and gatekeeper Cubby Broccoli for a shot at the superspy. (And not, like, Sugarland Express Spielberg, either; this was in the wake of Jaws, when there probably wasn’t a bigger box office sure thing on the planet.) As recounted by Spielberg—currently making the press rounds for his new film Disclosure Day—that wasn’t the only time Broccoli shot him down for the franchise, either: A few years later, the venerable producer reached out to the young wunderkind for permission to use the five-note sequence from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind for a gag in Moonraker, and Spielberg (per Variety) pitched him on a little quid pro quo: The song, in exchange for a chance to direct a Bond movie. Broccoli declined, and, nice guy that he is, Spielberg let him have the tune anyway.

In laying out these stories for the The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, Spielberg said he wasn’t sure why Broccoli kept turning him down. “They consistently turned me down—at least, Broccoli did. He never explained why he wasn’t letting me into the Bond family.” (We suspect it might be a British thing; a non-Englishman didn’t helm a Bond movie until New Zealand’s Martin Campbell directed GoldenEye in 1995, while Cary Joji Fukunaga only became the first American to direct a franchise installment with No Time To Die in 2021.) Ironically, it was pretty clear that the Bond folks were at least watching Spielberg’s movies; after Spielberg’s old buddy George Lucas cheered him up over his multiple double-0-rejections by pitching him on Raiders Of The Lost Ark, some pretty obvious elements from that adventure serial throwback popped up attached to Roger Moore in 1983’s Octopussy.

For what it’s worth, Spielberg claims to be over the obsession (albeit in a “Tell my ex I’m doing great” sort of way): “If they ever asked me to make a Bond film now,” he said during the Disclosure Day press tour, “My answer would be: ‘You can’t afford me.’” Sassy!

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