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Pedro Almodovar has revealed that he requested the rights to make a whole slate of English-language films - including The Silence Of The Lambs and The Reader.
The Oscar-winning Spanish director took part on a Q&A in London during a retrospective of his work held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Asked if would ever make a film in English he said he now felt it was "a little late" for him to start working in another language, and that his previous attempts had failed at the first hurdle.
He said: "I asked for the rights of The Hours by Michael Cunningham, and perhaps you will be surprised, I asked immediately after reading the book for the rights to Silence Of The Lambs, I asked also for the rights of The Human Stain by Philip Roth, and also The Reader. I did it as soon as I read the book but they were already sold."
But the director, who premiered the trailer for his new film I'm So Excited at the event, said he had accepted that an English-language film might never happen.
He said: "Destiny is something you have to expect, perhaps I was not the one to make the movies, that now I admire very much."
I'm So Excited, which stars Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, is due out next year. But the two stars, who Almodovar helped propel into the spotlight, do not feature in the short trailer - which sees three male flight attendants lip-sync and dance to the title song.
