Steven Spielberg may not be going for the gold.

The Oscar-owning Hollywood icon is threatening to quit as artistic adviser to the 2008 Beijing Olympics if China doesn't put more pressure on Sudan to end the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

Spielberg's rep, Andy Spahn, told ABCNews.com the helmer was waiting to hear a forthcoming statement from Chinese authorities regarding its policy toward the war-torn African nation before making a final decision.

"Steven will make a determination in the next few weeks regarding his work with the Chinese," Spahn said. "Our main interest is ending the genocide. No one is clear on the best way to do this.

"We expect to hear something from the Chinese government sometime very, very soon. We're pretty far down the road in discussions and then we'll decide if the path is productive or not and then consider other options."

Because Sudan supplies China with cheap oil and other energy needs, Beijing has been loath to interfere in the Darfur region. Militias linked to the Sudanese government are responsible for the deaths of more than 200,000 people and have displaced hundreds of thousands more from their homes.

The genocide has become a cause célèbre for Hollywood. The Ocean's Thirteen crew of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and Don Cheadle have raised over $5.5 million from movie screenings for their new charity, Not On Our Watch, to help fund refugee relief efforts there.

Clooney, Cheadle and two U.S. Olympians met to no avail with Chinese government representatives in December to try to persuade the country to take a harder line with Sudan.

Spielberg decided to take a more active role after getting called out by actress and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow.

In an editorial in the Wall Street Journal in March, she and her son, Roman, took the filmmaker to task for agreeing to take the unpaid advisory position for the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremonies.

"Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994 founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the Holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling Darfur's genocide?" wrote Farrow.

She suggested that by participating in the Games, the filmmaker was allowing himself to become an agent of propaganda for the Chinese in the same way infamous Nazi director Leni Riefenstahl allowed her 1936 opus, Olympia, depicting the Berlin Olympic Games, to put a friendly face on Hitler's racist and anti-Semitic policies.

"Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games?" Farrow asked.

The Rosemary's Baby star later told National Public Radio in an interview that her "intention was never to hurt" Spielberg's feelings, but rather to "move things."

Apparently, it worked.

Days after her essay appeared, Spielberg penned an open letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao asking him to pressure government leaders in Khartoum to allow a U.N. peacekeeping force into Darfur.

The filmmaker, who has donated more than $1 million to various Darfur aid groups, believes he might be able to gain some traction by working from the inside, given that China is using the 2008 Olympics as a massive PR endeavor.

Aside from his close encounters of the communist kind, Spielberg has been busy shooting the highly anticipated fourth installment in the Indiana Jones saga, now filming in Hawaii.

At Comic-Con in San Diego on Thursday, the director and star Harrison Ford put fanboys in a tizzy with a satellite message from the set unveiling the latest casting addition: Karen Allen, who will be reprising her role as Marion Ravenwood, Indy's feisty love interest in the adventure that started it all, Raiders of the Lost Ark.

In other Spielberg news, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment just announced plans to release the Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition DVD set, which will include the original 1977 theatrical edition, the 1980 re-edit, as well as Spielberg's director's cut released in 1998. Spielberg also gave an exclusive interview and participated in a new documentary on the sci-fi classic.

Ultimate Edition hits stores on Nov. 13.