Whatever your feelings towards Clint Eastwood’s most recent output – last year saw two movies from the director, the largely-forgotten “Jersey Boys” and the controversial smash hit “American Sniper” – the fact remains that the American icon still has some pull in Hollywood and has many great actors flocking to work with him. Earlier this month, Eastwood signed on to direct a movie based on America’s favorite pilot, Captain Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger III, and now Deadline is reporting that the film is about to grab another important piece of the puzzle.
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As if this untitled Captain Sully movie didn’t have enough pedigree, Tom Hanks is in negotiations to play the American hero who, in 2009, safely piloted a plane into a safe crash landing in the Hudson River with no casualties. If the deal is hammered out successfully, then the currently untitled film would become the second movie for Hanks based on famous events from 2009, following 2013’s “Captain Phillips” which concerned the Somali hijacking of the Maersk Alabama.
Following his wonderful and sadly overlooked performance as a different kind of a captain in Paul Greengrass’s 2013 film, we have no doubt that Hanks is absolutely capable of doing Captain Sully justice. The question now is whether Todd Komarnicki’s script will provide a good enough base for Eastwood’s workman-like qualities these days. Given Eastwood’s speed and efficiency when shooting, the answer may be found out sooner rather than later. After all, "American Sniper" was finished way earlier than anyone expected. Let’s just hope there’s 100% less rubber babies this time around.
