Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart will team up for Clint Eastwood’s film about Captain Sully, the pilot who successfully landed a plane full of people on the Hudson River in 2009 after a flock of birds got caught in the engines.
Hanks will play Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in the film, which is based on the events of that day as well as true events from Sully’s life which he wrote about in his memoir. The film has been in the works for a while now after Sully became an instant hero, with the incident being labeled “Miracle On The Hudson” by the media. Aaron Eckhart will play Jeff Skiles, who was the co-pilot on the plane that day. Skiles helped to safely land the plane alongside Captain Sully.
Eckhart’s latest project is London Has Fallen, which premieres early next year. There is currently no release date for the Captain Sully movie.
Tom Hanks, who has played his share of average heroes, will likely be the perfect box office draw for the film, although it doesn’t need much help. Between the amazing story and Clint Eastwood at the helm, it’s sure to be a hit from day one. Eastwood’s most recent project, American Sniper, drew in over $540 million despite–or perhaps because of–its controversial subject.
Tom Hanks made headlines recently when a letter he wrote in 1974 begging Oscar-winning director George Roy Hill to “discover” him was unearthed. At the time, Hanks was still a teenager and told Hill that he understood he didn’t have the classic looks of a movie star, but he felt he deserved a shot anyway.
“My looks are not stunning. I am not built like a Greek God, and I can’t even grow a mustache, but I figure if people will pay to see certain films … they will pay to see me…Let’s work out the details of my discovery. We can do it the way Lana Turner was discovered, me sitting on a soda shop stool, you walk in and notice me and – BANGO – I am a star,” Tom Hanks wrote.
