Danny Boyle wanted to make a biopic about David Bowie.
Danny Boyle
The 'Trainspotting' filmmaker and 'Millions' screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce had penned a "wonderful" script about the 'Space Oddity' singer - who died of cancer in January 2016 - but the pop icon wasn't interested when Danny approached him about the project in 2012.
He said: "Frank and I were working on a David Bowie script.
"I talked to Bowie about it at the Olympic Games and went to see him.
"He didn't really want to do anything at that time and I didn't really understand why.
"It wasn't clear to anybody he was ill. All he was saying was, 'I don't want to do anything in the past. I am working on stuff for the future.' "
And the director isn't sure whether he'll ever return to the project.
He added to Empire magazine: "I'm not sure if we'll come back to it. But he is a particular British person I'd want to study.
"Frank's was a wonderful script about the relationship between him and Iggy Pop."
The 62-year-old filmmaker was due to direct the 25th James Bond movie but left the movie last August due to "creative differences" and admitted missing out on the spy saga and not making his Bowie films are the two career decisions that will always "haunt" him.
Asked what he regrets not doing, he said: "The Bowie film we talked about... And the Bond actually, because our version of it was good.
"Those are the two that kind of haunt you. They could have been really good."
Tagged in Danny Boyle David Bowie