The scrapped Kylo Ren Star Wars spin-off movie is not the only canceled mainstream project on Steven Soderbergh’s resume, as the Ocean’s 11 director has now shed light on two rejected James Bond movie pitches. He recently opened up about two unusual movie ideas he had for the fan-favorite spy franchise, with one taking place in the Daniel Craig continuity and the other serving as a retro spin-off.
Steven Soderbergh reveals his rejected James Bond movie ideas
The Academy Award nominee revealed that he had shared two James Bond movie ideas with veteran franchise producer Barbara Broccoli almost two decades ago.
“I had pitched in 2008 the idea to Barbara Broccoli of a parallel franchise,” Steven Soderbergh noted while speaking with The Playlist. “Set in the ’60s, R-rated, violent, sexy. Fictional backstory to real historical events, different actor, different universe,” he said of the spin-off pitch.
Soderbergh further explained, “[It would be] cheaply made, where you get people like me, who are interested in that approach, to do one of these things. It’s just another lane that exists totally separate from the normal Bond movies. They were intrigued, but didn’t move forward.”
After facing rejection regarding his spin-off idea, the Ocean’s trilogy director returned with yet another idea. This time, he followed a more traditional approach and pitched a James Bond movie that would’ve followed the titular character’s misadventures after 2012’s Skyfall and would’ve effectively replaced 2015’s Spectre. However, he was adamant about doing both movies, which ultimately soured the deal.
“I was pitching a twofer, which was, ‘Yeah, I’ll do the contemporary extravaganza. But I also want to do the other one, after,’” Soderbergh stated, adding, “To be fair to them, it really was a twofer. I was like, I want to do both. I have ideas for both. But it’s all or nothing. You’ve either got to do both of them, you can’t have just one or the other, and I think that was just—that was a little aggressive.”
Nevertheless, Steven Soderbergh has since moved on from the James Bond franchise. Meanwhile, Denis Villeneuve is taking over the directorial responsibilities of the next entry in the long-running movie series.
