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Steven Spielberg once allegedly refused to work with ben affleck The film’s screenwriter has claimed that the film was banned partly due to long-standing resentment stemming from family vacations.
Mike Binder claims he developed the 2006 man about townAbout a Hollywood agent, with Spielberg, and he jaws The filmmaker was initially attached to direct.
speaking on a bad movie Podcast, Binder said that Spielberg changed his mind about directing but encouraged him to direct the script himself for Spielberg’s DreamWorks Pictures.
However, when Binder wanted to cast Ben Affleck in the lead role, Spielberg reportedly backed out.
Binder said: “I call Steven, Steven says: ‘No. Can’t do that to him. We banged in a movie with him, now he’s doing the whole J-Lo thing, and I’ve got other problems with him.'”
According to the screenwriter, those “problems” date back to when Affleck was dating Spielberg’s granddaughter, Gwyneth Paltrow.
Binder claims that Spielberg told her that they went on family vacations together, adding: “‘My son was a little boy, he was playing in the pool, and he came out of the pool, and Ben came over all dressed up, and my son pushed Ben into the pool. And Ben got really angry at him, and he came out of the pool and picked him up and threw him back in the pool, and made my son cry.'”
When Binder asked Spielberg why he was telling him that story, he said Spielberg explained: “‘I don’t like working with him. Plus his last two movies flopped. Find someone else. Anyone but him. He’s just cold.'”
When Binder told Affleck’s agent that he could not cast him, the actor immediately called him back.
“Ben called me, he said, ‘Did Steven Spielberg tell you I threw his baby overboard? Is that what happened? Is that why I’m not in your movie?’ I said, ‘No, he didn’t say that…’ ‘Yes he did!’ She told you that I threw her child into the water. That’s why I’m not in the film.
Binder says he called Spielberg back and told him he still wanted to cast Affleck in the film. Spielberg went along with it, but the next day Binder learned that DreamWorks was abandoning the project.
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Binder eventually made the film with Affleck for independent production company Media 8, and distributor Lionsgate released it straight to DVD.
Independent has contacted Spielberg and Affleck for comment.
Binder said that several years later, in 2013, he watched Affleck win the Best Picture Oscar. argo,
“He beats Spielberg [for Lincoln]And she’s at the Academy Awards, and they’re hugging,” Binder recalls,
“I text him, I’m looking on the air, I say: ‘Ben, tonight you can throw Spielberg’s entire family in the pool and get away with it.’ About an hour later, the phone rings, it’s Affleck at the Academy… He says: ‘That made me laugh so hard.'”