Steven Soderbergh once pitched a “twofer” concept that would have split the James Bond franchise into different paths

Soderbergh and Solo

Outside of the Ocean’s movies, Steven Soderbergh isn’t exactly known for franchise filmmaking. That’s not for the lack of trying as the director once tried to collaborate on a Star Wars project with Adam Driver. Although the project that he and Driver were once passionate about was canceled, there was an overwhelming amount of support online that may have shown how much interest there was in a Ben Solo project. When asked if he would ever be interested in jumping-starting the development again, Soderbergh simply and firmly said, “Nope.” Soderbergh concluded, “Look, if it was gonna happen, it would have happened. It’s that simple.”

Soderbergh pitched for James Bond

While speaking with The Playlist for his new film, The Christophers, the director reveals that he had pitched ideas to EON Productions about some possible directions in which he could take the James Bond franchise. In 2008, Soderbergh said he tried to sell producer Barbara Broccoli on a “parallel series” that would be more of a period piece. He explained,

I had pitched in 2008 the idea to Barbara Broccoli of a parallel franchise. Set in the ’60s, R-rated, violent, sexy. Fictional backstory to real historical events, different actor, different universe.”

Soderbergh says that the new direction would be more stripped-down — probably akin to his movies Haywire and Black Bag. He expounded, “[It would be] cheaply made, where you get people like me, who are interested in that approach to do one of these things. It’s just another lane that exists totally separate from the normal Bond movies.”

A two-for-one franchise

The director would stay keen on his concept, but he also says he was not opposed of doing an entry that was big as well. “So, when I got back into the conversation [a few years] later, then I was pitching a twofer. Which was, ‘Yeah, I’ll do the contemporary extravaganza. But I also want to do the other one, after. Like, I want to do both,’” Soderbergh stated.

His version of the big Bond film would have come right after Skyfall, which was later occupied by Spectre. He continued to say, “To be fair to them, it really was a twofer. I was like, I want to do both, I have ideas for both. But it’s all or nothing. You’ve either got to do both of them, you can’t have just one or the other, and I think that was just—that was a little aggressive.”

Soderbergh also admits that these ideas were more casually pitched as conceptual directions rather than formally vying for the job. His idea was to open Bond up for filmmakers like David Fincher and Quentin Tarantino to take a stab at the series with their own voices, but he added, “Well, I hadn’t talked to any of those people yet. I was just kind of, you know, pitching a hardcore auteur, low-budget period Bond.”

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