Ron Howard, Robert Zemeckis, and Steven Spielberg All Turned Down The Phantom Menace

Before George Lucas committed to directing ‘Star Wars: The Phantom Menace’, he offered the job to some of the biggest names in Hollywood including Ron Howard, Robert Zemeckis, and Steven Spielberg - all of whom turned him down.

Howard, whose new film ‘In The Heart of the Sea’ (in UK cinemas on Boxing Day), revealed all on the Happy Sad Confused podcast when the host asked him if Lucas ever offered him the chance to make a ‘Star Wars’ film.

“He did, he did. He didn’t necessarily want to direct them,” Howard explained.

“He told me that he’d talked to [Robert] Zemeckis, he talked to me, he talked to Steven Spielberg and he said we… I was the third one he spoke to, and he said we’d all said the same thing: ‘George, you should just do it.’

“Nobody wanted to follow that act I don’t think at that point. That was an honour but it would have been just too daunting.”

Howard, of course, first worked with Lucas on ‘American Graffiti’ and later directed ‘Willow’ under his watchful eye at Lucasfilm, so it’s no surprise they talked about it when the idea for ‘Phantom Menace’ was percolating.

The thought of a Steven Spielberg-directed ‘Star Wars’ film is a tantalising “what if” scenario though, but he eventually scratched that itch when he helped Lucas co-direct the Mustafar lightsaber duel between Obi Wan and Anakin in ‘Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’.

Either way, we’d love to have seen any of these directors make ‘Phantom Menace’, it can’t have been any worse than the film we eventually got, can it?

- What Happened To Jar Jar Actor?
- Actors Who Hated Working On Star Wars
- The Best Updates Made To Star Wars

Image credits: Rex Features