Steven Spielberg wants to explore television direction

Notable director Steven Spielberg has expressed his desire to direct a TV series in near future.

Spielberg wants to direct a series like Mare of Easttown someday. "I do have an appetite for long-form, and someday, I will direct a long-form series. I mean, if someone would have brought me 'Mare of Easttown,' I would have done that. [Laughs] That was a beautifully directed story," he told a podcast show.

The HBO-backed Mare of Easttown featured Kate Winslet, who played an emotionally damaged detective investigating a murder in her small town near Philadelphia. The limited series won several Emmys.

Earlier, Spielberg has produced acclaimed mini-series such as HBO's Band of Brothers, but he has never personally directed an entire TV show before.

At one point of time, Spielberg thought to make Lincoln a six-hour mini-series instead of a feature film.

"I was willing to do Lincoln as a six-hour [show] because I couldn't raise all the financing for it," Spielberg said. "No one believed in it...I went around town and everyone turned me down. I was ready to make a deal with HBO to do it and expand it to six hours. Tony Kushner's first draft was 550 pages, so I had the goods! I had the material. I don't know if I could have talked Daniel Day-Lewis into doing six hours, but I was on the brink of that," the director was quoted by Variety.

As a feature film, Lincoln earned 12 Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best director. (ANI)