Steven Spielberg's unrealized projects
[1] In February 1969, it was reported that a young Spielberg was hired by producer Dick Berg to direct a "modern retelling" of Snow White for Universal Pictures, based on a story by Donald Barthelme published in The New Yorker in 1967.
This version was to be set in a Chinese food factory, and feature the title character "[sharing] her San Francisco apartment with seven young men while waiting for her prince to show up.
Still intrigued by the prospect of making a barnstorming film, Spielberg enlisted Claudia Salter to help him conceive a father-son story, which would become the basis for Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies.
[8] At this time, the screenplay was called Slide[9] and Spielberg had a deal to direct it at MGM with Walsh as producer and Steve McQueen starring in the role which Elliott Gould would later play.
[13][18][19] In 1975, it was reported that Spielberg had agreed to direct The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings for Universal Pictures, and planned to join screenwriters Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins in a meeting with producer Rob Cohen.
[25] However, at the final moment, both Lucas and Spielberg made many changes to the script, whose concept was used to create Raiders of the Lost Ark, and subsequently, the Indiana Jones film franchise.
However, he later refused the idea, because he felt that "the army's knowledge and ensuing cover-up is so subterranean that it would take a creative screen story, perhaps someone else making the picture and giving it the equal time it deserves".
[34] In the late 1970s, Spielberg approached Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, whose script 1941 he was already preparing to shoot, to write for him a small, low-budget film about his youth in Arizona that he could quickly make before embarking on 1941.
The film (retitled at some point to Clearwater, and finally Growing Up), was set to shoot in May 1978 with a budget of just $1.5 million, but when cinematographer Caleb Deschanel called the script "disgusting", Spielberg backed out of the project.
[35][4] In the late 1970s, Spielberg expressed interest in directing a film adaptation of William Goldman's novel Magic and considered casting Robert De Niro for the lead role.
[69] In 1988, Spielberg requested to speak to cartoonist Bill Watterson about potentially making an animated film based on his popular daily comic strip Calvin and Hobbes.
[80] As reported in August 1990, Spielberg was interested in directing Ultimatum, a 1980 spec script by Robert Roy Pool and Laurence Dworet about "a presidential adviser battling terrorists."
[81] In 1991, Spielberg was slated to make a film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1922 short story The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for Universal Pictures, with Tom Cruise playing the titular role.
[93] In the mid-1990s, Spielberg acquired a copy of an early Pirates of the Caribbean draft based on the theme park attraction, written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio.
Amblin bought the script, and Bill Murray, Steve Martin and Robin Williams were on Spielberg's mind for the Jack Sparrow role, but Disney did not care for his take on the material.
[117][118] On January 24, 2002, it was reported that Spielberg would direct an adaptation of Hampton Sides's book Ghost Soldiers with Josh Friedman writing the script and Tom Cruise was set to star in and produce the film.
[120] In August 2002, a project called Spares based on the Michael Marshall Smith novel of the same name about human clones was also cited as a possible collaboration by Spielberg and Tom Cruise.
[127][128] John Goldwyn recalled in the spring of 2003 that Spielberg expressed interest in directing the remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) for Paramount Pictures, on the condition that Jim Carrey play the titular role.
Sacha Baron Cohen was originally cast as Abbie Hoffman,[141] while Spielberg approached Will Smith for the role of Bobby Seale, and planned to meet with Heath Ledger about playing Tom Hayden.
[147] In June 2008, DreamWorks acquired the screen rights to The 39 Clues adventure series, with Spielberg eyeing the project as a possible directing vehicle, prior to the first novel's publication.
On June 15, 2009, it was reported that Spielberg was to make a film about British Army private Horace Greasley, who claimed to have secretly escaped and returned to Nazi German prisoner-of-war camps 200 times during World War II.
[187][188] On January 6, 2014, Spielberg was considering directing Montezuma as his next possible project, based on a 50-year-old script by Dalton Trumbo about the collision between Emperor Moctezuma II and Hernán Cortés, which was reportedly being rewritten by Steve Zaillian.
[191] On April 11, 2016, it was announced that Spielberg was going to direct a film adaptation of David Kertzer's book The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, with Tony Kushner serving as screenwriter and Mark Rylance portraying Pope Pius IX.
Spielberg had hoped to shoot the film following West Side Story, but due to the negotiations with McQueen's estate taking longer than expected, he chose to direct The Fabelmans first instead.
[208] In the 1990s, George Lucas met with Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis and Ron Howard at different times to possibly direct Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
[215][216] In the 1990s, Spielberg reunited with fellow Cal State alumni Claudia Salter on a project she wrote for Amblin Entertainment titled The Realm, which she had developed along with producer Andrea McCall.
[220] On April 17, 2003, Spielberg optioned the rights to Thomas Eidson's novel St. Agnes' Stand, and was going to produce with Martin Scorsese directing the film and Charles Randolph writing the script.
[221] Following the release of The Adventures of Tintin, the plan to make sequels was asserted in October 2011, with Spielberg set to produce this time, and Peter Jackson directing.
[224] In May 2016, it was announced that Cary Fukunaga is in talks to direct the miniseries for HBO, from a script by David Leland, based on extensive research materials accumulated by Stanley Kubrick over the years.
[233] On October 29, 2018, Spielberg and J. J. Abrams were reported to co-produce the film adaptation of Melissa Fleming's A Hope More Powerful than the Sea about Doaa Al Zamel's escape from the Syrian Civil War, with Lena Dunham writing the script.
