10 Directors Who Turned Down Star Wars Movies

David Lynch made a memorable debut with surrealist horror turned cult classic Eraserhead in 1977 and followed it up with Joseph Merrick biopic The Elephant Man three years later, once again demonstrating his ability to build a fascinating on-screen world with modest cost.

This was a trait that George Lucas was looking for in a director for Return Of The Jedi after The Empire Strikes Back went grossly over budget and only narrowly avoided financial collapse on a number of occasions. Despite Lucas' courtship, Lynch rejected the chance to helm Episode VI, citing genre as the reason:

“I went to meet George Lucas, who had offered me the third Star Wars to direct, and I’ve never even really liked science fiction. I like elements of it, but it needs to be combined with other genres. And, obviously, Star Wars was totally George’s thing.”

The elements of science fiction he disliked were clearly present in the Return Of The Jedi script, as somewhat ironically Lynch's next project turned out to be Dune, his 1984 sci-fi epic based on Frank Herbert's novel of the same name. The film is set twenty one thousand years in the future and follows rival noble families battling for control of the their far-off planet's natural resources.