Editing Saving Private Ryan (section)

===Development===
To develop ''Saving Private Ryan'', Gordon founded the independent film studio [[Mutual Film Company]], alongside producer [[Gary Levinsohn]].<ref name="LATimes1998Producers"/> Gordon brought Rodat's draft to [[Paramount Pictures]] executives; they responded positively and hired Rodat who wrote the script over the following 12 months.<ref name="LATimes1998Producers"/><ref name="NYTimesReelTWO"/><ref name="NYTimesJuly271998"/> [[Michael Bay]] was hired as director, but left the project because he could not resolve how to approach the material.<ref name="ColliderBay"/><ref name="JoBloBay"/> Carin Sage, a junior agent representing Tom Hanks at the [[Creative Artists Agency]], gave the script to Hanks, who was immediately interested and met with Gordon and Levinsohn.<ref name="LATimes1998Producers"/><ref name="NYTimesReelTWO"/><ref name="NYTimesJuly271998"/> Hanks shared the script with [[Steven Spielberg]] who agreed to direct because the pair had wanted to work together for some time.<ref name="LATimes1998Producers"/><ref name="NYTimesJuly271998"/> Rodat thought that Paramount would cancel the project after the studio purchased two other WWII-era scripts, ''Combat'' and ''With Wings as Eagles'', with popular actors [[Bruce Willis]] and [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] attached, respectively.<ref name="LATimes1998Producers"/> However, having secured the involvement of Hanks and Spielberg, two of the highest-paid and most successful actors and directors, Gordon suggested Paramount executives prioritize ''Saving Private Ryan''.<ref name="LATimes1998Producers"/>

Describing what interested him about the project, Spielberg said, "So what you're doing is sending eight people out, all of whom have parents, to rescue one boy and send him back to his mom when any or all of these kids, along the mission route, could be killed. That was the central tug that made me want to tell the story".<ref name="Privatespielberg"/> Spielberg had a lifelong interest in WWII, having made war films as a teenager because "it was the seminal conversation inside my family. My parents talked about [[the Holocaust]] and they talked about combat and war. And I was born knowing this. [[Arnold Spielberg|My dad]] was a veteran{{nbsp}}... he had many veterans over to the house, and I became absolutely obsessed{{nbsp}}... based on my father's stories, recollections, and also based on all the WWII movies".<ref name="BuffaloNewsFacts"/><ref name="LATimes2018Spielberg"/><ref name="ASCSpielberg98"/> He described the project as a tribute to his father.{{sfn|Schickel|2012|p=183}}

With Spielberg on board, [[DreamWorks Pictures]], which he co-founded, became involved as a financier, with his company [[Amblin Entertainment]] as a production company.<ref name="NYTimesReelTWO"/><ref name="Amblin1"/><ref name="Ambin2"/>  Spielberg's clout effectively removed Gordon and Levinsohn from the production, having no creative input, equity, or rights, but receiving a producer's credit and one-off payment. Levinsohn said, "You just know going in what the score is{{nbsp}}... I guess it's unspoken that when you hire Steven Spielberg you're not going to be on the set making decisions".<ref name="LATimes1998Producers"/> DreamWorks hired [[Ian Bryce]] to replace them. In April 1997, [[Sumner Redstone]], chairman of Paramount's parent company [[Viacom (1952–2006)|Viacom]], had Spielberg flip a coin to determine the film's distribution rights. Spielberg won the toss, giving DreamWorks the favored North American distribution rights and Paramount the international rights. Earnings were held collectively and split evenly between the studios. In exchange, Paramount received the North American distribution rights to DreamWorks' ''[[Deep Impact (film)|Deep Impact]]'' (1998).{{efn|Attributed to multiple references:<ref name="LATimes1998Producers"/><ref name="NYTimesReelTWO"/><ref name="NYTimesJuly271998"/><ref name="TimeCoinFlip"/>}} To keep the budget low, Spielberg and Hanks took minimal upfront salaries in exchange for a guaranteed 17.5% of the gross profits, equivalent to 35 cents of every dollar earned.<ref name="LATimes1998Producers"/><ref name="NYTimesJuly271998"/>