Hollywood icons Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg will be working together again, this time on an as of yet untitled Cold War thriller. It seems Hanks is set to take on the role of real-life James Donovan, an attorney recruited by the CIA during the Cold War to negotiate the release of a captured U-2 spy plane pilot who was shot down over Russia. Spielberg is slated to produce along with Marc Platt, but Spielberg may be looking to direct the picture as well.
This would not be the first time Spielberg and Hanks have teamed up for a historical drama. In 2002 Spielberg directed Oscar-nominated Catch Me If You Can where Hanks played FBI agent Carl Hanratty. Hanratty painstakingly tracked, apprehended, and ultimately befriended the famous check fraud mastermind Frank Abagnale, Jr., played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Spielberg has also directed Hanks in an in 1998’s WWII drama Saving Private Ryan, for which Spielberg won a directing Oscar and Hanks reeled in an acting nomination (the film was famously – and controversially – bested for the Best Picture win by Shakespeare in Love), as well as 2004’s The Terminal.
Spielberg is rumored as a director on multiple projects, including Robopocalypse, Montezuma, and fifth installment in the Indiana Jones franchise. The question of Spielberg’s next directorial choice has been an ongoing saga since Lincoln wrapped and he dropped out of American Sniper. The wisdom about town says that if Spielberg decides a blockbuster, like the three films above, isn’t for him right now, directing Hanks again would be appealing. The two Hollywood giants are known to be good friends and it wouldn’t be surprising if Spielberg chose to direct the picture starring Hanks.
For now, we’ll have to wait and see what Spielberg chooses. Currently he is currently serving as a producer on Lasse Hallstrom’s The Hundred-Foot Journey starring Helen Mirren. Hanks will appear next in Tom Tykwer’s A Hologram For The King to be released some time 2015.
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