Star Wars Was Offered To William Friedkin, But He Passed — cinemablend.com

That’s what happened to poor William Friedkin when he attempted to release his South American thriller Sorcerer in June 1977. At the time, no filmmaker was hotter. Friedkin was coming off of The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973). He assembled a team around Roy Scheider to play outcasts hired to transport a load of unstable dynamite through the jungles of South America in beaten-up old trucks. Sorcerer had some obstacles to overcome during production, but none were anywhere near as massive as the 800-pound gorilla that was Star Wars, plopping down in theaters and changing the landscape for the types of films audiences now wanted to see.

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