Steven Spielberg Bailed On Directing ‘Rain Man’ Due To ‘Indy 3’ Commitments & Friendship With George Lucas [Flashback]

With the writers and actors on strike, well, who the hell knows what’s going on? You may not hear from any actors, writers, or hell, even directors who are not doing press in solidarity. So, in a bid to still continue making things interesting for you and for us, we’re reintroducing an old Flashback Friday or Throwback Thursday feature and just calling it “Flashback”: a fun excuse to highlight old interviews, old stories, classic movie stories and more.  

If you’re a fan of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, you are probably familiar with these two legendary filmmakers being best of friends. It’s interesting because one has become one of the greatest American filmmakers of all time, and the other created what is arguably the most significant film franchise in history. But through it all, both remained close friends. However, in an interview from years ago, Spielberg remembers one film that almost made him throw away his friendship with Lucas. Kind of.

READ MORE: Mel Gibson Wishes He Would Have Said Yes To Dustin Hoffman’s Role In ‘Rain Man’

In a classic excerpt from the book Steven Spielberg: Interviews, Revised and Updated, Spielberg talked about films he had to walk away from that he regretted. And at the time, the film at the top of the list was 1988’s “Rain Man.” The Oscar-winning film by Barry Levinson, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, was initially developed to be directed by Spielberg. However, when Lucas came calling for “Indiana Jones 3,” Spielberg felt obligated to join his friend and leave “Rain Man” in the dust.

“With Rain Man, I spent almost half a year developing it with Dustin and Tom Cruise and Ron Bass,” Spielberg said at the time. “I kept trying to get the screenplay to be better and better while having a stop date of the 12th of January, at which time I would have to start shooting in ‘Indy 3,’ or we couldn’t make our Memorial Day 1989 release date. When I saw that I was going to go past January 12th and that I would have to step down from ‘Indy 3,’ the promise I made to George was more important than making ‘Rain Man.’ So, with great regret because I really wanted to work with Dustin and Tom, I stepped down from the movie.”

Spielberg even said that he turned over all his notes to Barry Levinson and amicably left the project.

“Yeah. I sort of debriefed in front of Barry and gave him all of my notes and everything. And Barry went his own way and made his own movie, but he appreciated the hours we spent together talking about my notes. But that’s how I would have made a film, and Barry’s not me and he had his own way of making the picture.”

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and even though “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” is a quality action-adventure film, the director does wish he had the chance to make “Rain Man,” especially considering Levinson won an Oscar that year when the golden trophy still eluded Spielberg.

We can add this little bit of “Rain Man” history to the other trivia fact that Mel Gibson was up for Hoffman’s role but turned it down. We covered a separate interview with Gibson, where the actor talks about his regret about that decision.

So, who would have thought that “Rain Man” would be the source of regret for two of the biggest names in Hollywood? Obviously, we don’t know how it would have turned out, but it would definitely be interesting to see Spielberg’s take on the material.