And the Winner Is 'Steven Spielberg to Direct a James Bond Film'

According to a poll taken by Take2 Publishing of noted film critics on their favorite film fantasy projects, the most popular response, by a wide margin, was for Steven Spielberg to direct a James Bond film, a project that had been discussed by Spielberg and Albert (Cubby) Broccoli some years ago. 

New York, NY (PRWEB) May 22, 2014

In a poll conducted by Take2 Publishing earlier this month on the subject of film fantasy projects, Spielberg’s Bond film gained 21% of the votes, handily beating out the next highest vote getter "Christopher Nolan directing a Charlie Kaufman script" at 13.5%.

Rounding out the top 5 were "Joel and Ethan Coen bringing The Catcher in the Rye" to the big screen at 13%, sharing the third spot with "Peter Jackson making a cinema series from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels," also at 13%. In fifth place was the hope that "Pedro Almodovar would direct a Woody Allen script" at 12%.

Spielberg directing a Bond film is not a fantasy out of the blue. According to an interview with Spielberg by Jason Matloff originally published in Premiere Magazine and included in the just published Take2 Guide to Steven Spielberg, “I had been turned down twice by Cubby Broccoli years before,” Spielberg said.

He had first expressed interest in directing a Bond film in the early 1970’s, as a follow-up to his theatrical feature-film debut The Sugarland Express. At the time, producer Albert (Cubby) Broccoli was reluctant to give the young and inexperienced director such an assignment; by the early 90’s, when Spielberg expressed interest again, Broccoli is reported to have quipped, “Now I can’t afford you!”

Rounding out the top 10 responses were "Alfonso Cuaron directing a Star Trek film" at 9% closely followed by "Spike Lee remaking Gone With the Wind" at eight percent, equaling "Kathryn Bigelow remaking Fantastic Voyage," also at eight percent.

Trailing at single digits were "James Cameron directing Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo" and "Alexander Payne directing a Neil Simon screenplay" at two and one percent respectively.

The poll was conducted amongst the 150 contributors signed with Take2 Publishing, a dedicated eBook publisher which just released “The Take2 Guide to Steven Spielberg” and has in development the following titles; Take2 Guides to Woody Allen, Lost and Breaking Bad; the first in a stand-alone series titled Cities In Cinema - “Shining a Spotlight on New York"; a publication on "The Evolution of Cinema Comedy - It's Not Intelligent Design"; and the first in another series in the sci-fi arena called Sci-Fi On Screen - "Apocalypse How - Viewing Armageddon Through Cinema and TV”.

The contributors include Eric Lax, Joseph McBride, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Matt Zoller Seitz, Sam Juliano, Ed Howard, Ed Gonzalez, Dan Schneider, Tony Macklin, Matt Brennan, Graeme Daseler, John Greco, Joel Bocko, Maryann Johanson, Tom Carson, Ryan Kelly, Roderick Heath, Joel Bocko, Danielle Turchiano, Chuck Tryon, James Berardinelli and over 130 others.