Steven Spielberg reveals Interstellar work before Christopher Nolan took over

Steven Spielberg has insisted Christopher Nolan was the "better" choice to direct Interstellar.

The iconic filmmaker, who is set to return with Disclosure Day in June, has opened up about the work he did on the 2014 sci-fi epic for a year before Nolan's name was floated as a potential replacement at the helm.

Speaking to Empire magazine, Spielberg explained: “I was involved with Interstellar for a year… and I became fascinated with it.

“I spent a lot of time at the [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] in Pasadena, California, talking to the scientists there and the aerospace engineers.

“I actually hired Chris Nolan’s brother [Jonathan] to write the first and second draft for me, but it didn’t stick.

“Jonah actually said, ‘If there comes a point where you decide not to make this movie, I can tell you who’s gonna grab it. He’s already bugging me about it. And that’s my brother Chris.’"

Spielberg admitted Nolan's brother was "absolutely right", and it was the best call for the movie.

He added: "He was absolutely right. The second I decided not to make it, Chris jumped on board, probably the next day.

"Interstellar was a much better movie in Chris Nolan’s hands than it would have been in mine.”

The movie stars Matthew McConaughey as a NASA pilot on a space mission to save the planet from dying.

Last month, Nolan appeared at a screening of Interstellar with actor Timothee Chalamet - who worked on the film with the likes of Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastaine and Michael Caine - and opened up about being brought on board.

He told Chalamet: “Right after we collaborated on Dark Knight, my brother got the job and went to work with Steven. I get to call him Steven. He’s Mr. Spielberg to you.

“He worked on it for a lot of years. It had incredible ideas and moved through all these different iterations, but until Steven was ready to make it, whatever it is, it never quite got that momentum. Steven went off to do another film, so it became available.”

He admitted he was "excited" by the project, and he was delighted to get to put his spin on the film.

He explained: “I had a lot of conversations with Jonathan over the years and what he was doing and what his ambition was. I was excited by it.

"I was incredibly struck by his first act. I had been working on a time travel idea… things looking at time. I had half-baked projects that I hadn’t committed to.

"When it became available, it was a case of me saying to Jonathan, ‘How would you feel if I took this and tried to combine it with some of my ideas and change a bit with what it was?’

"He was fine with it. He could tell the spirit of what I was trying to do was to get to what he was initially excited about it.”