Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar has always been shrouded in mystery, both on and off screen. There’s all the talk about how scientifically correct the film is, but also how it works as a powerful metaphor for Christianity, rich with symbolic meaning. Now, Steven Spielberg has dropped another surprising fact: he nearly directed Interstellar before Christopher Nolan did.
See, before Nolan released his sci-fi space odyssey in 2014, the project actually sat with Steven Spielberg for about a year. How close was he to actually making it? Well, he revealed that he spent time with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, talking to scientists and aerospace engineers – all in the hopes of wrapping his head around the science the film needed as the background.
“I was involved with Interstellar for a year… and I became fascinated with it,” Spielberg said.
At that stage, the film was already being developed. At one point, producer Lynda Obst and theoretical physicist Kip Thorne were working on it too. Then in 2007, Spielberg hired Jonathan Nolan, Christopher Nolan’s brother and the mind behind Westworld, to write a few drafts.
Spielberg even brought Jonathan in himself. “I actually hired Chris Nolan’s brother… but it didn’t stick,” he admitted. All the while, Christopher Nolan was eyeing the project, waiting for the chance to get involved.
And that chance came a few years later. Jonthan had warned Spielberg that if he stepped away, his brother would most likely jump on Interstellar. He wasn’t wrong. The day after Spielberg quit, Nolan began developing his version of the sci-fi feature film.
But it was all actually about timing. See, at that point, Dreamworks moved its distribution from Paramount to Disney in 2009, and Spielberg’s focus moved to films like Lincoln and War Horse.
The reason why none of the other people who have written an earlier draft didn’t get any credit is that Nolan’s version of the film was completely different from anything that came before. According to reports, Spielberg’s version leaned into politics, aliens and a space race with China. But Nolan’s version instead focuses on family, destiny and, of course, his usual interests: time and space.
All that said, Spielberg has zero regrets. He has called Nolan’s version “much better” than what he would have made.
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