Any time Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks team up we can expect to be taken to the battlefields. Their first collaboration in 11 years is Bridge of Spies, but the battle this time is ideological as it's set during the Cold War tension between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Hanks plays Brooklyn lawyer James B. Donovan who is tasked with negotiating the release of a captured American spy plane pilot. To do it, he'll also need to stand up for captured Soviet spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), who gives him an interesting nickname. Spielberg tells EW...
“I think the character that Tom Hanks plays, James B. Donovan, he was what you would call the Standing Man. The stand-up kind of guy who stands up for what he believes in to be a universal truth, which is basically justice for all – regardless of what side of the Iron Curtain you are on. He was only interested in the letter of the law.”
Sounds like the perfect role for Hanks, who is often called upon to play characters with a strong moral center. The film was written by the Coen Brothers and co-stars Amy Ryan, Alan Alda, Austin Stowell, and Peter McRobbie. Bridge of Spies opens October 16th.
