The classic Tom Hanks movie Steven Spielberg turned down: “You’ll get no credit for this”
Having worked together in a number of capacities over the course of four decades, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks have become very close friends as well as regular collaborators.
The first time they were part of the same project came when the former served as an executive producer on the latter’s 1986 comedy The Money Pit, even if it would be another dozen years before Spielberg called action on one of his own self-directed features that boasted Hanks as part of the cast.
When they finally took that plunge, Saving Private Ryan delivered one of the greatest World War II movies ever made, which landed Spielberg an Academy Award for ‘Best Director’. Since then, they’ve been virtually inseparable, reuniting regularly across film and television.
Spielberg did executive produce Joe Versus the Volcano, too, but that first team-up as director and actor opened the doors to Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, Bridge of Spies, and The Post. Beyond that, they co-created seminal miniseries Band of Brothers, as well as producing its spiritual successors The Pacific and Masters of the Air.
They could have debuted as one of Hollywood’s favourite power pairings long before Saving Private Ryan, though, but Spielberg ended up making a selfless sacrifice that ruled him out. Hanks secured his first Oscar nomination when he made the ‘Best Actor’ shortlist for Penny Marshall’s Big, the movie that propelled him onto the industry’s A-list.
The screenplay was co-written by future Pleasantville, Seabiscuit, and The Hunger Games director Gary Ross, who himself became a first-time Oscar nominee when he shared that accolade with a certain Anne Spielberg. It was Steven’s younger sister who helped crack the story, which is exactly why didn’t want the director’s position.
He was offered the chance, however, and reportedly considered Harrison Ford as his ideal candidate to portray Josh Baskin, in what would have been a sight to see given that the Star Wars and Indiana Jones icon is hardly known for his slapstick stylings or penchant for pratfalling.
Being the kindly big brother that he was, Spielberg didn’t want his name to overshadow the hard work his sibling had put in. “I was offered Big and I turned it down because my sister had written it,” he admitted to Flavour, despite producer James L. Brooks trying his hardest to convince him otherwise.
“Jim Brooks and I had many meetings about this and he was very persuasive about my doing it,” Spielberg explained. “I said to Anne, ‘Here’s why I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it because you’ll get no credit for this great script you wrote. It will all go to me.'”
At the time – just as he is today – Spielberg was arguably the most famous director on the planet, but he wanted his sister to enjoy her moment in the sun. She got it through an Oscar nomination, even if he’d have to wait another ten years before he got the chance to direct Hanks.
