Steven Spielberg Had Begun Casting Actors for “Harry Potter,” but Walked Away to Direct a Different Film in Stanley Kubrick's Honor

Angela AndaloroThu, June 11, 2026 at 3:45 PM UTC

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Steven Spielberg on the set of "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" with Haley Joel Osment (left) and Judge LawCredit: WARNER BROS. PICTURES/Alamy -

Stanley Kubrick first acquired the story that would lead to A.I.: Artificial Intelligence in the late 1970s

While giving it thought and working on elements to bring the film together, Kubrick tabled it for various periods in the two decades that followed

Kubrick shared the film with Steven Spielberg, who would take the helm at Kubrick's family's request following his death in 1999

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence was decades in the making before its 2001 release.

In a clip shared by Turner Classic Movies ahead of a screening of the film, director Steven Spielberg opens up about taking over a project that was Stanley Kubrick's passion, after the filmmaker's death in 1999.

"There was no script and after his death, then I was at the funeral, at his home in Saint Albans. Christiane and Jan Harlan approached me about taking over from Stanley and, as Stanley intended, directing the movie," he recalled.

"And I actually walked away from Harry Potter, which I was scheduled to direct as my next movie. The cast, some of the older actors, I had made casting suggestions. But I gave it up. It was going to be a huge movie because the book was already a runaway cultural phenomenon as a book. I gave that up to essentially do A.I."

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Kubrick first bought the rights to the story that inspired A.I. — "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long," written by Brian W. Aldiss — in the late 1970s. The project passed among different writers and was temporarily shelved as Kubrick worked on other projects. He picked it up once again after completing Full Metal Jacket, then set it aside as Eyes Wide Shut took shape.

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"It meant a great deal to him," Aldiss told The New York Times in 1999. "There was something in there about the little boy's inability to please his mother that touched Stanley's heart."

Though Kubrick paused on the project several different times over the decades, worried about getting it just right, there was some forward movement.

Bonnie Curtis, who served as an assistant to Spielberg during the early 1990s, recalls the two filmmakers connecting over the project.

Stanley KubrickCredit: Keith Hamshere/Getty

Steven SpielbergCredit: Evan Agostini/ImageDirect/Getty

"Stanley was unique in every way, but in his phone etiquette, he was very unique. Because he would call, and he wouldn't want Steven to call him back—he would just want to hold until Steven was available. I never thought of him as being obnoxious or anything. It would just be: 'Well, how long do you think he'll be in that meeting?' 'You know, Stanley, I don't know—probably another 20 minutes?' 'OK, I'll just wait,' " she told The Ringer.

"Steven adored Stanley, and Steven would often say, 'Why don't you let Stanley and me schedule a time to talk this weekend?' Because they never had a short conversation."

Sam Robards, who played Henry Swinton, believes that Spielberg was able to capture Kubrick's vision while keeping his own film feel to it, telling the outlet, "It was different, and chewy, and dense. It did have that Kubrick feel to it, right? Dispassionate. At the end, it was great they got together, but also it wasn't wholly emotional. I think Steven nailed that."

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”