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Paul Greengrass in Talks to Direct Tom Hanks in Somali Pirates Film

by Ethan Anderton
June 2, 2011
Source: Vulture

Back in March we learned Scott Rudin, Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti and Kevin Spacey, the producing team behind The Social Network, were crafting a big screen adaptation of the story of Captain Richard Phillips, the leader of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama who gave himself up as a hostage to Somali pirates in order to keep his crew safe from the ruthless men. In addition, Tom Hanks was slated to play the heroic captain, but no director was mentioned at the time. Now Vulture reports Paul Greengrass is currently in talks to helm the film which has been titled Maersk Alabama, and is aiming to shoot this fall.

Billy Ray (State of Play) is behind the script for the film based on Phillips' memoir, A Captain's Story: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs and Dangerous Days at Sea, that was optioned by Sony Pictures. The script is apparently what convinced Hanks to do the film in the first place, but before moving on to this film, he'll first shoot Cloud Atlas with the Wachowski siblings. And even though Greengrass is said to be in talks to direct the film, it's not exactly a done deal yet as the director has a few other choices on his plate.

We recently heard he might be interested in an adaptation of The Deep Blue-Goodbye, and Vulture mentions that he could also end up directing a project called Rush, a Formula One racing drama from writer Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/ Nixon). That film follows three-time Formula One champion Niki Lauda and his near-fatal 1976 racing season where he was nearly burned to death after his Ferrari swerved off the track in only the second lap of the German Grand Prix, crashed, and burst into flames. In addition, there's apparently another project on Greengrass' radar, but they were tight-lipped on that one. Honestly, any of these projects sound like good options, I just want Greengrass behind the camera again soon.

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