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Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have been friends for a long time. Their longstanding friendship has spanned their personal and professional life, and they often sing high praises of each other every chance they get. Despite being friends for a long time, the two friends collaborated for the first time with Spielberg’s $482 million movie starring Hanks in the lead.
Released in 1998, their Oscar-nominated movieSaving Private Ryanwas critically acclaimed and was a highly successful venture despite being snubbed at the Oscars. However, it was also a movie that Spielberg almost didn’t make due to his friendship with Tom Hanks.
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Steven Spielberg Didn’t Want To Make $482M Movie Because Of Tom Hanks
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As the legend goes, one should never mix friendship and business. Even in the world of cinema, friendships and relationships have been destroyed just because of mutual work. Hence, despite being friends for years,Steven Spielbergand Tom Hanks never worked together. And whenSaving Private Ryancame around, they were hesitant to collaborate.
In an interview, Hanks stated,
“I’ve seen friendships that ended because of a bad moviemaking experience, and I was really reluctant to do it because of that. Sometimes I’m just astounded that I know this great guy and that I’m friends with him. So it hasn’t been worth it to risk our friendship until now.”
Even theETdirector had the same opinion since he didn’t want to‘jeopardize his friendship’with his long-time friend.
“We had always been happy with our kids playing and going on vacations together, and our wives are best friends, and we didn’t know. We didn’t want to jeopardize a friendship, and so we never really talked about working together.”
While they had never discussed working together, they also never faced any opportunity till then to risk their friendship. But since theMatt DamonstarrerSaving Private Ryanwas a complete coincidence, they decided to take a leap of faith.
Also Read:After Replacing Liam Neeson, Robin Williams Helped Steven Spielberg Make His $322M Movie That Almost Wrecked Director Emotionally
Steven Spielberg-Tom Hanks Collaboration Was A Complete Coincidence
When screenwriter Robert Rodat completed the script ofSaving Private Ryan, both Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks were interested in doing the project unbeknownst to the other’s intentions. While they were both about to commit to the movie, they were surprised to know that they were coincidently interested in the same project.
“Tom, independent of my read, had read ‘Private Ryan,’ and when Richard Lovett at CAA [the talent agency] told Tom that I was about to commit to it, Tom said, ‘Well, this has posed a difficult dilemma in my life, because I’m about to commit to it.’ And Tom had to, you know, do some soul searching to see whether he wanted to mix business with personal, and so did I.”
Their collaboration onSaving Private Ryanhelped break the assumption that their friendship might be destroyed because of mutual work. They then went on to collaborate on multiple critically acclaimed projects.
Saving Private Ryancan be streamed on Paramount+.
Source:Slash Film
Maria Sultan
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2703
Maria Sultan is a dedicated News Content Writer at FandomWire. With over five years of professional experience and hundreds of published articles, she brings a wealth of expertise to her coverage of Marvel, K-dramas, and the latest on streaming platforms.Her work is not just about reporting news; it’s about providing insightful perspectives on the entertainment trends that matter most.
