Steven Spielberg is attached to direct an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s beloved novel “The BFG” for DreamWorks, but his next film will be an untitled Cold War thriller starring Tom Hanks that is slated to shoot in the fall, an individual familiar with the situation told TheWrap.
A representative for DreamWorks said only that the Cold War thriller “could be next.”
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Not only has Spielberg been searching for his next movie, but the director has actually been anxious to make dual decisions and commit to his next two movies, which he plans to shoot back-to-back. The way things are currently shaping up, Spielberg will shoot the Cold War movie in September before turning his attention to “The BFG” in 2015.
Hanks has already cleared space in his fall schedule to accommodate the shoot, which means that Spielberg projects such as “Robopocalypse” and “Montezuma” are on the back burner for now.
Hanks is attached to play James Donovan, a prominent American attorney enlisted by the CIA during the Cold War to slip behind the Iron Curtain and negotiate the release of Gary Powers, a pilot captured when his U-2 spy plane was shot down over Russia.
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Matt Charman wrote the script and Marc Platt is producing the film, which DreamWorks executive Jonathan Eirich will oversee on behalf of the studio.
Hanks and Spielberg previously teamed on “Saving Private Ryan,” “Catch Me If You Can” and “The Terminal.”
As for “The BFG,” Melissa Mathison (“E.T.”) adapted Dahl’s beloved 1982 children’s novel, which follows a big, friendly giant who befriends a young orphan girl. Frank Marshall is onboard to produce.
Spielberg is comfortable shooting films back-to-back, with “Jurassic Park” and “Schindler’s List” released in 1993, “Munich” and “War of the Worlds” released in 1995 and “War Horse” and “The Adventures of Tintin” released in 2011.