10 Directors Who Turned Down Star Wars Movies

When Ron Howard revealed that he had turned down the chance to direct The Phantom Menace, he also name-dropped some of the other big directors that had rebuffed Lucas' advances before he himself said no to the job, one of whom is often credited by some as being the greatest visual storyteller in film.

Robert Zemeckis first came to the attention of the movie-going pubic in 1984 as the director of Romancing The Stone, and it was the critical and financial success of this Michael Douglas-led adventure rom-com that gave the director enough clout to get Back To The Future into production after years of studio rejection.

His sci-fi adventure comedy trilogy would go on to define the 1980s for many, putting him in the company of directors like Steven Spielberg (who served as executive producer on the Back To The Future films), John Carpenter and, of course, George Lucas.

The Star Wars creator turned to Zemeckis when he began looking for a director for the first film in his prequel trilogy, though he didn't get the answer he was hoping for. Like Howard, Zemeckis responded by telling Lucas that he himself should be the one to take charge of the new generation of Star Wars, which, for better or worse depending on your standpoint, turned out to be the case.