Well, you can put this right at the top of list of Oscar contenders for 2011. Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock (who was rumored in late July to be joining the project) are set to star in an adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close.” The project was first announced back in April when Stephen Daldry boarded the project as a director; Eric Roth (“The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button,” “Munich”) has written the script.
The film follows a quirky nine-year-old vegan/scientist/artist/pacifist who searches for information about a key he finds that belonged to his father, who died in the North Tower in the 9/11 attacks. Hanks and Bullocks will play the parents of the child (who is yet to be cast) with the plot utilizing “multiple narrators and time frames.” Ambitious material, indeed.
Shooting is slated to begin on the Warner Bros./Paramount co-production in mid-to-late January in New York City. For Hanks, it will give him time to complete his latest directorial effort “Larry Crowne” starring Julia Roberts and a host of excellent supporting cast members. As for Bullock, she is coming off the best year of her career in 2009 and with this selection she seems eager to follow in the new career path made available thanks to her Oscar win for “The Blind Side.”
