Here’s something you won’t find on the “Phantom Menace” Wikipedia page.
While promoting “In The Heart of the Sea” on Josh Horowitz’ Happy Sad Confused podcast, Ron Howard remembers that he was offered the chance to direct “Episode I” after Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis turned it down.
The comment came at the 30-minute mark.
George Lucas “didn’t necessarily want to direct them,” said Howard. “He told me he had talked to Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, and me. I was the third one he spoke to. They all said the same thing: ‘George, you should do it!’ I don’t think anybody wanted to follow-up that act at the time. It was an honor, but it would’ve been too daunting.”
Howard, of course, already directed Lucas’ brainchild “Willow” and Spielberg directed all four of Lucas’ Indiana Jones movies.
Of course, those directors were almost certainly not offered the same script control reportedly afforded J.J. Abrams for next month's “The Force Awakens,” but it is intriguing to imagine where those three filmmakers would have taken Lucas’ most lucrative franchise.
In the same interview, Howard reveals he’s been offered plenty of superhero movies but turned them all down, despite liking the genre. “I was never a comic book guy. I like the movies when I see them, especially the origin stories. I never felt like I could be on the set, at 3 o’clock in the morning, tired, with 10 important decisions to make, and know, intuitively, what the story needs. For me, I’d be copycatting and not inventing. I’ve never said yes to one.”
Find the podcast here.
Find all of slashfilm’s story on the matter here.
