As mentioned, while in America, there were numerous other projects that he ultimately ended up not getting involved in. Soon upon arriving, Dragojević met with Harvey Weinstein who offered him Milčo Mančevski's script "Dust", but Dragojević refused, reasoning that it's a very personal script that can more or less only be directed by Mančevski, and also due to discovering that, as he put it in one interview, "offering me that script was the Weinstein brothers' little 'fuck you' to Mančevski whom they were on bad terms with at that moment". The studio then offered Dragojević the "Heaven, Hell, Purgatory" trilogy, while they particularly wanted him to direct "Hell", however he vehemently refused, labeling the script "the dumbest thing I've ever read" in another interview. Dragojević had been interested in filming Patrick Marber's play "Closer" from as far back as 1999 when he first arrived in the United States, but the studio kept turning him down, eventually hiring veteran director Mike Nichols who got to make the film in 2004. The studio then offered Dragojević "Reindeer Games", but he refused, figuring something better would come along. He was by his own admission particularly interested in directing either "Frida" or "View from the Top", however in the case of the former, the movie's producer and star Salma Hayek wanted a female director so the job went to Julie Taymor while in the case of the latter, the film's producers as well as its star Gwyneth Paltrow didn't like Dragojević's ironic take on the screenplay and Bruno Barreto got the job instead. He was also in the running for "The Mexican", but the job went to Gore Verbinski. Summing up his Hollywood experience, Dragojević said: