In the 1970s, Steven Spielberg approached EON Productions three times to direct a James Bond movie, and each time Bond’s producer Albert R. Broccoli turned him down.

The fateful decision led to Spielberg directing Raiders of the Lost Ark. The director’s desire to make a James Bond film, however, wasn’t forgotten. Indiana Jones paid homage to the Bond series throughout the first three films.

The James Bond series, itself, reflects the movie trends of the time, especially during the 1970s, taking inspiration from Blaxploitation (Live and Let Die), Kung Fu (The Man With the Golden Gun), and Star Wars (Moonraker). James Bond was one of the few spy series to survive the end of the 1960s spy craze, and following the cinematic trends throughout the Seventies helped the series survive and keep it relevant for moviegoers.

Three Attempts, Three Rejections

Cubby Broccoli (far left) posing with Roger Moore and Barbara Bach in a promotional shot for The Spy Who Loved Me. He had already rebuffed Spielberg’s pitch to direct a Bond film after Jaws and would do so for the final time a year later, after the release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

So it is strange that Cubby Broccoli passed on working with Spielberg, Hollywood’s hottest new director. 

To be fair, Spielberg made his first pitch to Bond star Roger Moore at an event in Paris. It was the early 1970s and Spielberg had only made his first feature film Duel (1971).

“We sat, and we talked,” Moore told MTV. “He said he would love to direct a Bond. At this time, all I knew about him was that I had seen Duel, which I thought was a superb bit of moviemaking.”

Moore mentioned the conversation to Broccoli, who didn’t think Spielberg had the experience to direct a Bond film.

But Spielberg didn’t give up. In 1976, one year after Jaws became a phenomenal hit and invented the Summer Blockbuster, the then-27-year-old Spielberg approached Broccoli directly. 

In an interview on Michael Ball’s BBC Radio 2 show, Spielberg recalled said:

“I called Cubby Broccoli twice, and after Jaws which was such a huge success, I thought ‘Hey people are giving me final cut now.’ So I called up Cubby and offered my services but he didn’t think I was right for the part.”

The decision was unusual because 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me would be filmed at sea like Jaws with a man-eating shark and a henchman named Jaws, an obvious homage to Spielberg’s film.

Spielberg tried one last time after his success with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and approached Broccoli again.

“Then even after Close Encounters [of the Third Kind] came out and was a big hit – once again – I tried to get on a Bond film and now they can’t afford me.”

A Character Better Than Bond?

George Lucas (left) and Steven Spielberg (right) on the set of Raiders of the Lost Ark. (Image: Paramount Pictures via MovieStillsDB.com)

Months earlier, Spielberg had retreated to Hawaii with George Lucas. Lucas wanted to be far, far away from Star Wars and its opening weekend. Fearing the worst, Lucas was relieved when news broke that Star Wars smashed box office records.

Spielberg recalled the conversation in J.W. Rinzler’s book, The Making of Indiana Jones.

Lucas, at that point, turned to Spielberg and asked: 

“What film would you like to make?”

Spielberg replied: “Well, you know what I’ve always wanted to do? I’ve always wanted to direct a James Bond picture.”

Lucas said: “Well, I’ve got that beat.” He proceeded to describe the adventures of Indiana Smith, a whip-cracking archaeologist fighting Nazis in the 1930s.

Spielberg was hooked on the idea of updating adventure movie serials from the 1930s and 1940s. But he still had his heart set on Bond. At least he thought he might be able to direct one in the late Seventies before fully committing to Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981.

Bond would become an influence on Indiana Jones (Spielberg was behind the name change from Smith to Jones). 

James Bond Influenced the Formation of Indiana Jones

Comparisons to Bond began in the 1978 Raiders of the Lost Ark Story Conference between Lucas, Spielberg, and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan.

Lucas compared Indy to Clint Eastwood and James Bond. But he wanted Indy to be distinct from Bond and reins in many of Spielberg’s ideas which he says are too much like a James Bond movie.

For instance, Spielberg suggested the movie opened with knowledge of a Nazi “secret base where the supplies are coming from, and planes just seem to disappear at a spot in the ocean. In fact, it’s the secret Nazi submarine base. Then there is some promise, some hope, that by the end of the movie, they’re going to discover this place and blow it up.”

Lucas was worried that the story sounded too much like a typical ending to a James Bond movie:

“The problem I have is that we wind up the way every Bond movie has ended. He’s on the island, he has to get out of there with the girl, and they do get out, they’re on the water, and the whole place blows up.”

Spielberg responded positively to the comparison:

“I love that. Every Bond movie has made money, too.”

Lucas wanted a more grounded adventure for Indy’s first adventure, which he likened to Dr. No.

Temple of Doom Begins Like A Bond Movie

Images: Paramount Pictures and Danjaq via MovieStillsDB.com

After Raiders, however, the Indiana Jones series embraced more outrageous action sequences that would not be out of place in a standard James Bond film. Indeed, both Bond and Indy would copy ideas from each other throughout the 1980s.

For instance, all Indiana Jones films begin with a big opening action sequence like the pre-titles sequence in a Bond film. 

The opening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, in particular, has all the trademarks of a Bond film. It’s set in a nightclub. There’s a glamorous singer who is reminiscent of a Bond Girl. And we see Indy act like a suave Bond-like character dressed in a white dinner jacket like Sean Connery in Goldfinger. Indy even has a red carnation on his jacket lapel like Bond.

While dealing with a duplicitous Asian gangster, Indy crosses paths with the singer and they have to make a hasty escape from machine gun-toting hoodlums by jumping through a window out five floors up. Awnings break their fall and they crash land through the roof of a car. An ensuing car chase leads to their escape in a plane. But their escape is short-lived as the pilots empty the petrol tank and use the last remaining parachutes to escape. Thinking quickly on his feet, Indy escapes with the girl and his sidekick, Short Round, via an inflatable raft that helps break their fall. They land on the snowy slopes of a mountain as the plane crashes into a mountain peak behind them.

Though set in the 1930s, Temple of Doom’s opening has all the requisite glamor and action you’d expect in a James Bond film.

Image: Paramount Pictures via MovieStillsDB.com

The homage would continue in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with the original Bond, Sean Connery, hired to play Indy’s dad. It was a deliberate bit of casting to get the best Bond in the film, and Connery’s pairing with Ford proved a hit with audiences.

Spielberg never got his chance to make a James Bond film. But he certainly got to channel his desire to make a Bond film into Indiana Jones.

Indy is certainly an action hero in his own right, but he does owe some debt to James Bond.

Sources:

BBC

The Complete Making of Indiana Jones by J.W. Rinzler.

Transcript of the 1978 Raiders of the Lost Ark Story Conference.