The 1980 movie Steven Spielberg tried and failed to ghost-direct: “It can only be one of you”

Steven Spielberg has long been rumoured to have unofficially "ghost-directed" 1982's Poltergeist, effectively overriding credited director Tobe Hooper because no one on that set was willing to challenge him. A resurfaced anecdote about Robert Zemeckis's 1980 comedy Used Cars, which Spielberg executive-produced, suggests this wasn't an isolated habit, but on that occasion star Kurt Russell shut it down before it became an issue.

According to filmmaker Mick Garris, who worked on Poltergeist, Russell told Spielberg he could take direction from either him or Zemeckis but not both, and Spielberg backed off and apologised. Garris contrasts this with the Poltergeist set, where Hooper had no equivalent ally to push back, allowing the ghost-directing rumours to persist for over 40 years. Spielberg had a longstanding mentor relationship with Zemeckis, having executive-produced his debut I Wanna Hold Your Hand and co-written 1941, which Garris suggests made Spielberg's overreach a recurring pattern rather than a one-off on Poltergeist.