LATEST NEWS

Tom Hanks to Play Captain Richard Phillips in Somali Pirates Movie

by Ethan Anderton
March 15, 2011
Source: Deadline

They delivered a film that was both relevant and riveting with The Social Network in 2010 (my favorite film of the year), and now producers Scott Rudin, Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti and Kevin Spacey are taking another real-life story straight from newspaper headlines to the big screen. Deadline reports the producing team will adapt 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, they apparently have Tom Hanks attached to play the ship's captain. Look out Jack Sparrow!

Phillips spent three days as a hostage of the Somali pirates before being rescued by Navy SEALs in a raid that resulted in three dead captors and one captured pirate. His heroic exploits landed him a book deal and it's the Phillips' memoir, A Captain's Story: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs and Dangerous Days at Sea, that was optioned by Sony Pictures for the feature film. The book was published lat year and the script from Billy Ray (State of Play, Breach) is what convinced Hanks to jump on board. Of course, the actor may also be on another ship as Hanks is also supposed to join Tim Allen for a live action film based on Disney's Jungle Cruise theme park attraction. Captain Phillips story sounds a little more substantial though. What do you think?

Tweet

Related categories: Casting, Movie News, Opinions