Decorated filmmaker Steven Spielberg behind the camera and Tom Hanks in front? It’s little wonder that Cold War espionage drama Bridge of Spies is garnering early buzz ahead of this year’s awards race. Boasting an abundance of Oscar-friendly tropes, Spielberg’s latest is based on the inspiring real events surrounding a Brooklyn lawyer (Hanks) who is tasked with venturing to the other side of the Iron Curtain to defend a wayward KGB spy.
Acting against every fiber in his being, Hanks’ James Donovan is originally assigned to locate and free a captured America pilot, who crashed his U-2 airplane behind enemy lines. However, bartering with the Soviets during the height of the Cold War proved to be anything but easy.
Primed to release next month, Entertainment Weekly has today debuted a new trailer for Bridge of Spies, showcasing a layered, riveting drama that features an eye-catching turn by Hanks.
Bridge of Spies may mark the pair’s first collaboration in over a decade – setting aside producing work on The Pacific and Band of Brothers for HBO – but Spielberg is evidently keen to reunite with Hanks so as to fire his upcoming drama to the summit of the Oscar contenders. Speaking about his regular cohort, the esteemed director stated that Tom Hanks was a natural fit to portray the lawyer who risked it all.
“I thought Tom was the obvious choice to play Donovan,” Spielberg continued. “Tom’s own morality and his own sense of equality and fairness, and the fact that Tom does such good things in the world, by using, wisely, his celebrity and intelligence and points of view – he has so many of them – that I thought it was a good fit to play Donovan.”
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks will hope to pique the attention of the Academy when Bridge of Spies opens in theaters on October 16. Scott Shepherd, Amy Ryan, Sebastian Koch, and Alan Alda round out the cast.
A dramatic thriller set against the backdrop of a series of historic events, DreamWorks Pictures/Fox 2000 Pictures’ “Bridge of Spies” tells the story of James Donovan, a Brooklyn lawyer who finds himself thrust into the center of the Cold War when the CIA sends him on the near-impossible task to negotiate the release of a captured American U-2 pilot. Screenwriters Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen have woven this remarkable experience in Donovan’s life into a story inspired by true events that captures the essence of a man who risked everything and vividly brings his personal journey to life.
Published: Sep 16, 2015 01:23 pm