Steven Spielberg celebrated his 62nd birthday this week. As a tribute, instead of looking at his wonderful accomplishments in film direction over the past 35 years, I thought I might look at the movies he didn't direct.

And since that would mean looking at a hell of a lot of films, I also thought I would break it down into the ones he was actually set to direct but backed out for various reasons.

The information below has been kindly donated by the good people at The Internet Movie Database.





5. RAINMAN

Spielberg spent five months developing the script for Rain Man (1988) with Ronald Bass, but had to commit to his handshake deal to direct Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Spielberg gave all of his notes to Barry Levinson.


4. THE MASK OF ZORRO

Spielberg turned down the opportunity to direct The Mask of Zorro (1998) to work on Saving Private Ryan (1998). After watching Ardilla roja, La (1993), Stanley Kubrick advised Spielberg to hire Julio Medem to direct this movie. Spielberg contacted Medem but the Spanish filmmaker rejected the job and preferred to keep working in more personal projects





3. BIG

Spielberg almost directed Big (1988) with Tom Hanks starring, but didn't want to steal the thunder of his sister, Anne Spielberg, who co-wrote the script.


2. CAPE FEAR

Spielberg was originally set to direct Cape Fear (1991). He later recommended Martin Scorsese for the job and personally called the director, letting him know that this was a commercial film that had potential to be a hit, which would exercise more power for Scorcese to make his films.


1. STAR WARS: EPISODE VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI

Spielberg's longtime friend George Lucas originally wanted him to direct the third entry of the original Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) and Spielberg was eager to do so, but Lucas was unsuccessful in getting him the job because of his dispute with the Director's Guild at the time.