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Looking at Steven Spielberg’s filmography is basically a list of some of the biggest movies of all time. The man helped define what a blockbuster is and continues to dip into new genres, but there is one series that we’ll likely never see Spielberg direct, and that is James Bond. Not because he doesn’t want to (he tried twice to get the job), but because they couldn’t afford him at this point in his career.

While talking on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast, Steven Spielberg revealed that he pitched to Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the producer who worked on every Bond film from 1962 to 1989, twice to try to direct the world’s most famous secret agent. “I’d always wanted to make a James Bond film from the day I saw Dr No. 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.”

Jaws, of course, was the first big hit of Spielberg’s career, so maybe Broccoli wanted to see if the young director was more than a one-hit wonder. “Cubby called me again after Close Encounters [of the Third Kind] 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 have him the five notes anyway.”

After that rejection, Spielberg told his fellow filmmaker George Lucas about the rejection. Lucas, who had just shot to fame thanks to Star Wars, had an idea. “That’s when George said, I have something better than Bond. It’s called Indiana Smith, which is what it was called at the time. And he told me the premise of the Indiana Jones series. And that’s how I got that job.”

Over the years, Steven Spielberg found himself in the director’s chair of some of the biggest movies of all time. From Jurassic Park to E.T. to Schindler’s List. But he never got to direct his James Bond movie. “[Broccoli] never explained why he wasn’t letting me in the Bond family… [but] if they ever asked me to make a Bond film now, my answer would be, ‘You can’t afford me.’”

The man clearly knows his worth. 

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