The coin toss that decided the fate of ‘Saving Private Ryan’: “I believe in Steven’s premonitions”
There’s no such thing as an easy movie to make, with every production comprised of countless moving parts, hundreds of professionals, and no shortage of backroom wheeling and dealing. Saving Private Ryan may have been executed meticulously from a production standpoint, but its fate was decided by tossing a coin.
Steven Spielberg may have approached the shoot with an improvisational quality that enhanced the urgency and immediacy of the action, but he was too experienced to leave anything to chance. He didn’t have a shot list when he kicked off principal photography with the mammoth Omaha Beach sequence, but he still knew what he wanted.
The same was true of the cast, who didn’t fully settle into their characters until the cameras rolled. They didn’t even have lines from the script to recite during the audition process, and when the key players were all hired and dispatched to boot camp, Tom Hanks had to step in and prevent them from staging a mutiny after they were (figuratively) beaten into submission by military advisor Dale Dye.
The end result was a record-breaking box office haul that made Saving Private Ryan the highest-grossing World War II movie of all time, instant classic status, and five Academy Award wins from ten nominations, including ‘Best Director’ for Spielberg and one of the most notorious ‘Best Picture’ snubs in Oscars history. So, where does the coin fit in?
In typical Hollywood fashion, it happened at a glitzy hotel on Sunset Boulevard, where Spielberg acted as a mediator of sorts between two industry heavy hitters. Robert Rodat’s screenplay captured the attention of Paramount, who hired him to develop the script. Tom Hanks caught wind of the project and brought it to Spielberg, with the two A-listers having been searching for a film to make together.
Seeking to exert his authority over the picture, Spielberg expanded his involvement in Saving Private Ryan by using DreamWorks, the company he co-founded, as a financier, also bringing in his Amblin Entertainment as a production company. That effectively ousted producers Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn, who received ceremonial credits and a one-off payment. However, one big question still had to be answered.
Paramount owned the script, and DreamWorks had the director. Everyone knew Saving Private Ryan was destined to be a success, but the issue of distribution rights still needed to be settled. The latter’s Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen met with the former’s Sumner Redstone to hammer out a compromise, which led to the coin toss.
Spielberg had a vision that calling tails was the way to go, and Katzenberg agreed. “I believe in Steven’s premonitions,” he said, per Time. Redstone insisted that the filmmaker pull a quarter out of his pocket while he made the call to avoid any shenanigans or sleight of hand, and the director’s intuition paid off.
DreamWorks secured the coveted domestic distribution, with Paramount getting the international rights. Sometimes, these behind-the-scenes battles can become heated to the point of spilling over into arguments and lawsuits, but the power players behind Saving Private Ryan decided a simple toss of the coin was the smartest and easiest way to go.
