During his long career, American filmmaker Steven Spielberg has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell into "development hell" or were officially canceled, some were turned over to other production teams, and others never made it past the speculative stage.

1960s A Wooden Nickel In 1966, Spielberg took an interest in directing Claudia Salter's screenplay A Wooden Nickel, which was sold to Universal Pictures, but at the time he was only 20 years old and no studio would hire him.

Snow White 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." In the 1970s, he pitched the property again to Universal, alongside Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies and the Thomas Crapper biopic, but it failed to materialize.

Winkler In addition to Barthelme's Snow White, another project Spielberg flirted with directing as his feature debut was a love story called Winkler.

Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies

In 1969, Spielberg teamed with comedy writer Carl Gottlieb to pitch a World War I aircraft flying film to Warner Bros. Pictures, but the deal fell through due to Spielberg's young age. 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. When the screenplay was finished, Spielberg sent it to 20th Century Fox president Richard D. Zanuck, who wanted to buy the property but would also decline to hire him to direct it. By 1970, following Zanuck's departure from the studio, Fox announced that Spielberg would direct Ace Eli, with Joe Wizan producing. A year later, Robert Fryer took over as producer and replaced Spielberg with John Erman. The film originally ended with the character Eli committing suicide, but the studio recut it to give it a happier ending and shelved it for two years. Unhappy with the final film, Salter, Erman and the producers had their names removed from the credits. Spielberg was so displeased when he finally saw it that he publicly complained it had been "turned into a really sick film. They should bury it."

1970s Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper At the beginning of the 1970s, Spielberg tried to convince Universal Pictures to greenlight the production of Flushed with Pride: The Story of Thomas Crapper, the semi-satirical biography of Thomas Crapper, who, as the book suggested, invented the flushing toilet. Spielberg approached screenwriters Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck to write the script.

Slide

Around 1971, actor Joseph Walsh wrote California Split, a screenplay about his own gambling addiction which he developed with Spielberg at his home for eight months. At this time, the screenplay was called Slide 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. However, studio head Jim Aubrey wanted them to change it to "a straight movie", demanding it be retitled Lucky Chip and for Dean Martin to be the star of it. Walsh and Spielberg left MGM and took the script to Universal Pictures where they had an agreement with Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown. Zanuck and Brown then hired Spielberg to direct The Sugarland Express, leaving Robert Altman to take his place. Spielberg later told Walsh, "I would have definitely made more money with this film [than Sugarland]. But I could never have made a better picture."

White Lightning

Before choosing The Sugarland Express, Spielberg considered directing the Burt Reynolds vehicle White Lightning as his first theatrical release. "I spent two-and-a-half months on the film," Spielberg explained, "met Burt once, found most of the locations and began to cast the movie, until I realized it wasn't something that I wanted to do for a first film. I didn't want to start my career as a hard-hat, journeyman director. I wanted to do something that was a little more personal."

Cruising

In the early 1970s, film producer Philip D'Antoni hired Spielberg to direct a film adaptation of Gerald Walker's novel Cruising. Spielberg was reportedly attached to the project for three years before officially dropping out. According to D'Antoni, "We just couldn't come up with a script that met with my satisfaction... So we decided to abandon the project, and figured we'd go on to do something else together some other day, and Steven went back to L.A." The film adaptation was eventually directed by William Friedkin.

ER

Michael Crichton initially wrote a screenplay for a film about an emergency room, and met with Spielberg in 1974, with Spielberg intended to direct. The film would be shelved until the 1990s, when Crichton and Spielberg revisited it and both concluded it would work better as a television series, which debuted in 1994.

Lucky Lady

Spielberg was considered to direct Lucky Lady for 20th Century Fox. The script was written by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, and Paul Newman was to have starred in the film had Spielberg directed. However, Spielberg could not direct the film due to his commitment with Jaws.page 183

The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings

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. Spielberg would depart from the film several months later due to post-production obligations on Jaws. John Badham took his place and made his feature directorial debut with the film.

Superman

Around 1975, after the success of Jaws, Alexander Salkind and his son Ilya wanted to hire Spielberg to direct Superman, the first theatrical movie based on the Superman comic book series. However, due to Spielberg's commitment to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Salkinds finally hired Richard Donner to direct the film.

The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker

In 1975, Spielberg called Albert R. Broccoli offering to direct The Spy Who Loved Me, but was turned down. In 1978, after the successful release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, he offered to direct a second time on Moonraker. Afterwards, he became uninterested in directing any James Bond films.

The Ninth Man Spielberg's follow-up to Jaws was almost an adaptation of John Lee's then newly published WWII thriller novel The Ninth Man, which was inspired by the true events of eight Nazi saboteurs who landed by submarine and were captured on Long Island in 1942, with the ninth man managing to escape. Filmmaker Todd Field later revived the project in 2004 and had sought to direct it through DreamWorks.

Unused Indiana Jones film concepts The Adventures of Indiana Smith: In May 1977, Spielberg met his colleague George Lucas in Hawaii. During that vacation, Lucas convinced Spielberg to make a film based on the film serials of the 1930s and 1940s. Lucas previously wrote a script for the planned film, entitled The Adventures of Indiana Smith; in which the main character, Indiana Smith, was based on James Bond. 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.

Indiana Jones and the Monkey King: In September 1984, after the critical mixed reception of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, George Lucas wrote a script entitled Indiana Jones and the Monkey King for the third installment of the film series. The film had the Fountain of Youth as the MacGuffin. Spielberg was attached to direct, but at the final moment, Spielberg decided to hire Chris Columbus to rewrite the script, and the third film ended up being Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Indiana Jones and the Saucermen from Mars: In 1995, a time after the cancellation of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Jeb Stuart wrote a script for the fourth film in the Indiana Jones film series, entitled Indiana Jones and the Saucermen from Mars. Spielberg was supposed to direct it, while George Lucas was supposed to serve as producer. Although Lucas loved the script, Spielberg and Ford had issues with it, so Spielberg hired Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade writer Jeffrey Boam to make a rewrite of Stuart's script. However, the script was finally rejected after the release of Independence Day, which was released one year later. The fourth film, entitled Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was finally released in 2008.

Indiana Jones and the City of Gods: On May 17, 2002, IGN reported that The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles writer Frank Darabont would write the fourth film of the Indiana Jones franchise, entitled Indiana Jones and the City of Gods, in which ex-Nazis would chase Indiana Jones. The script is very similar to the final script, including Indy's and Marion's wedding and a scene with army ants, but it did not include Indiana Jones' son. Spielberg liked the script very much, but George Lucas disliked it, and for that reason, he hired David Koepp to write the film. The film ended up being Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was released in 2008, with Spielberg returning as director.

Indiana Jones 5: On February 26, 2020, it was reported that Spielberg chose not to direct the fifth Indiana Jones film, as he wanted to "pass along Indy's whip to a new generation to bring their perspective to the story". James Mangold took over as director, with Spielberg remaining involved in the film as an executive producer, while Ford starred as Jones.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind sequel In late 1977, after the successful reception of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg expressed interest in filming a sequel or a prequel. 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". He also did not want developer Columbia Pictures to make a sequel without him, which had happened with Universal Pictures' Jaws.

Night Skies

After his decision not to make a sequel to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg started the development of his next project, a science fiction horror film entitled Night Skies, whose concept was pitched by him during the development of Close Encounters. The film was intended to be a spiritual follow-up to Close Encounters. Lawrence Kasdan was attached to write the screenplay. The film was never made, although elements of it inspired two other Spielberg films: Poltergeist and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (although the first was not directed by Spielberg).

Growing Up