10 Directors Who Turned Down Star Wars Movies

Ron Howard owes his career to George Lucas, with American Graffiti providing the actor-cum-director with his big break.

Howard went from strength to strength in the 1980s, directing a string of critically acclaimed movies in Night Shift, Splash and Cocoon, and it was during post-production of the latter that George Lucas approached him to direct Willow. Much like The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi (as well as Indiana Jones), Lucas had devised the story for Willow but wanted someone else to bring it to life, and Howard agreed.

Though the film was far from the success Lucas had hoped for, he still offered Howard the job of directing Episode I - The Phantom Menace when it came up, but, like a number of his contemporaries, Ron didn't relish the responsibility of relaunching Star Wars for a new generation:

"I was the third [director] he spoke to. They all said the same thing: ‘George, you should do it!’ I don’t think anybody wanted to follow-up that act at the time. It was an honour, but it would’ve been too daunting."