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"Saving Private Ryan," "Eyes Wide Shut" and the Princess Di Funeral

posted 6 years ago by ecarle (14979)
4 replies | jump to latest

The funeral of Princess Diana, killed too young in a Paris car crash, took place on September 6, 1997.

Among the dignitaries attending -- all emerging from the same limousine -- were Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Steven Spielberg.

The show biz press made much of how Hollywood was willing to send such Hollywood heavyweights to a state funeral. But it turned out those four were in London, working, anyway.

Cruse and then-wife Kidman were working for Stanley Kubrick on Eyes Wide Shut. Hanks was working with Spielberg on Saving Private Ryan. Some agents must have put in some calls and assembled this "funeral dream team." After all in 1998, "the Two Toms" were the biggest male movie stars in the world.

I wondered how Tom and Tom handled riding together in the same car. Both had been in many $100 million grossing hits(back when that was the "magic domestic number") but Hanks had two Best Actor wins under his belt, Cruise...none. How did this affect the ride?

As for Cruise and wife Kidman...here a nice "public showing" of their marriage and their support for Princess Di. But that marriage wouldn't last much longer.

Some of its collapse may have been attributed to the rigors of filming Eyes Wide Shut.

Consider this: Cruise and Kidman; and Hanks and Spielberg, were all in London to film their respective movies in September 1997. But "Saving Private Ryan" would be out less than a year later(summer 1998) . "Eyes Wide Shut" would be out almost TWO YEARS later(summer 1999) and one year after "Saving Private Ryan."

The reason? Stanley Kubrick's legendary, 100-takes, slow work on his filmmaking. So slow was Kubrick on his filming that two actors who were filming -- Harvey Keitel and Jennifer Jason Leigh -- had to quit the movie to move on to other projects. They were replaced by Sydney Pollack and , uh...some actress.

"Saving Private Ryan" was a big one for Spielberg and Hanks. A Best Director win for Spielberg, a Best Actor nom for Hanks(and a "We Wuz Robbed" Best Picture miss.)

"Eyes Wide Shut" was somewhat less a big one for Cruise, Kidman, and Kubrick. Famously , Kubrick died before Eyes Wide Shut was released and there remains controversy: how finished was it?(A lot, I say - -he'd spent almost two years filming a very easy-to-film, intimate story.)
I don't recall Oscar noms for Cruise or Kubrick. Maybe one for Kidman.

Leaving where I came in: the world may have THOUGHT that the two Toms and the others were "specially sent to represent Hollywood" at Di's funeral, but it turns out "they were all in town anyway." And their joint 1997 appearance ended up telling a tale about how quickly Spielberg could make a masterpiece versus Kubrick.

[–] tph890 (489) 6 years ago

So...what is the point of this post? I mean, there is a great bit of fascinating information here, but did you expect a dialogue, or were you just declaring something?

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

Just declaring something.

I think the two points I am trying to make are:

ONE: The media thought that "Hollywood had sent their A team"(Hanks, Cruise, Spielberg...Kidman) to Princess Di's funeral all the way from Hollywood, but no -- there were all in England making movies anyway.

TWO: That they were together with Saving Private Ryan and Eyes Wide Shut at the same time to START, but Spielberg and Hanks would be done over a year sooner than Cruise and Kidman(under Kubrick.) Which is to expected when working with Kubrick...but amazingly, Saving Private Ryan is the much more large scale, epic, and complicated film, and it got done WAY faster than Eyes Wide Shut.

So...yes...just a declaration. Sometimes I like to share things I've read with the "movie reader."

Thanks for reading.

[–] tph890 (489) 6 years ago

Ok, that's cool.
I never really knew that SPR and EWS were being made at basically the same time.
I wonder why Kubrick took so long to make EWS...?
It's amazing that Spielberg was able to complete SPR before EWS when comparing the technical difficulties of making each film (SPR being far more complicated).
I love both of these films, and both directors, and you shared a good post, and I thank you for it. I'm sorry for being an asshole with my initial response, I was having a bad day--expecting something when I should have been accepting something.
Be well.

[–] ecarle (14979) 6 years ago

No worries. I come here to communicate things that maybe others will find interesting...but maybe not.

As to "I wonder why Kubrick took so long..." well, he was famous over the years...but particularly with his last few movies over 20 years -- for shooting take after take after take of a scene, scores of times, maybe hundreds of times. For an actor to sign on with Kubrick meant signing on for a grueling shoot, no matter the size of the picture.

And so, some months after the Di funeral, Spielberg and Hanks were done and back home -- but Cruise and Nicole were stuck...for another year. Actually, Cruise more than Nicole. He's in a lot more scenes in EWS than she is, so she got to go home first, and he was stuck filming with Kubrick for months. Who knows, may have helped lead to their marital break-up not long after.

Thank you again for reading.