The only movie Steven Spielberg was talked out of directing: “I don’t think it’s good enough for him”
Generally speaking, Steven Spielberg does whatever the fuck he wants because he’s Steven Spielberg, and there aren’t many people in the industry who are brave, foolish, or stupid enough to tell him otherwise.
When you’re a three-time Academy Award winner, the highest-grossing director in cinema history, and one of the all-time greats who’s knocked out at least half a dozen movies that will stand the test of time as stone-cold classics, it gives you a pretty decent amount of leeway.
Spielberg has been writing his own ticket since Jaws upended the established order in 1975, so when he commits to directing something, he’ll direct it. Apart from that one time that it didn’t happen, which caused his business partners to breathe a huge sigh of relief because they didn’t think it was good enough to carry his name, but what does that say about the filmmaker who did make it, then?
Shortly after putting the finishing touches on yet another masterpiece, Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg signed on to helm the feature-length adaptation of Arthur Golden’s Memoirs of a Geisha, with his DreamWorks Pictures teaming up with Columbia, who’d purchased the rights in 1997.
He was taking meetings with costume designers, and shooting was expected to begin in 2000, with his instructions to James Acheson that the outfits be less garish. Or, “I think we need to make it less Disney, more Degas,” as he said. As a co-production between two studios, it wasn’t ideal for his inner circle, but DreamWorks partner Jeffrey Katzenberg found a way to make his peace with it.
“Having half of something Steven is excited about is better than having none,” he told The Guardian. However, he wasn’t excited in the slightest by the prospect of the director following up Saving Private Ryan with Memoirs of a Geisha, so he did his best to try and make sure that he didn’t.
“I tried to talk him out of it,” David Geffen, the third head of the DreamWorks hydra, admitted. “I don’t think it’s good enough for him.” There must have been some awkward moments at the company’s headquarters during that development phase, with Spielberg knowing fine well that neither of his associates was thrilled that he planned to shoot something they’d rather he dropped entirely.
They eventually got their wish in 2002, after he’d repeatedly delayed Memoirs of a Geisha in favour of AI Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, and then Catch Me If You Can. Spielberg stepped away from the director’s chair but stayed on as a producer, with Rob Marshall taking over.
His version was nominated for six Oscars in the technical categories and won three of them, but you’ve got to wonder how he felt being brought in to steer a picture that the people producing the movie had already made clear wasn’t good enough for Steven Spielberg.
