In news that should please any single person who has ever walked into a movie theater, Joel and Ethan Coen are on board to write a draft of an upcoming film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks. The draft will be for an untitled Cold War thriller that would star Hanks as James Donovan, an attorney who helped with the rescue of a downed fighter pilot during the 1960s. While initial reports said that British playwright Matt Charman (the upcoming adaptation of Suite Française) was writing the screenplay, the Coen brothers are reported to be working on a draft at the moment.
Spielberg has been circling a number of projects for a while, from the sci-fi adaptation of Robopocalypse to the fantasy adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The BFG. With the involvement of cinema’s most beloved writing and directing team, this Cold War project should gain some momentum. Although the brothers used to stick with penning their own films, they recently wrote the screenplay for the WWII drama Unbroken, set for Christmas Day and directed by Angelina Jolie. They also wrote Gambit, a caper remake that bombed with critics and audiences so poorly overseas that its North American release last month was virtually ignored.
The Coen brothers have never worked with Spielberg, but they did direct Hanks in The Ladykillers a decade ago. Though they confirmed last week that they were moving forward on Hail Caesar, a Hollywood satire that is also based on a true story, if Spielberg and his producers decide to press along with this thriller project right away, the Coens may be committing to the James Donovan story first.
As always, we’ll keep you posted when we hear more. Already though we’re starting to get giddy with excitement at the prospect of such a promising project.
