I've been keeping a close eye on this story, and it looks more and more as if the project could be going ahead. Clint was spotted on the Warner Bros lot a couple of days - apparently getting involved with some pre-production aspect of his next project. So based upon that information, here's a few bits I have collated since last month - when rumours of the 'Sully' project started to surface.
Fresh from the success of American
Sniper, Clint Eastwood has been announced as the director of a new movie about
another American hero – Captain Sullenberger. US Airways pilot Sully
Sullenberger gained instant global fame for displaying tremendous grace under
pressure when he landed his disabled jet on the Hudson River in 2009, saving
the lives of everyone aboard. Warner Bros. has secured the movie rights to the
heroic story that was quickly called The Miracle on the Hudson, although no
title has been announced yet for the movie.
Eastwood will direct the film
from a screenplay by Todd Komarnicki, based on the book Highest Duty: My Search
for What Really Matters, by Sullenberger and Jeffrey Zaslow. The announcement
was made on Tuesday by Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide
Production, Warner Bros. Pictures, reports The Wrap. The film is being produced
by Eastwood and Tim Moore, for Malpaso; Frank Marshall, under the
Kennedy/Marshall banner; and Allyn Stewart, for Flashlight Films. Flashlight’s
Kipp Nelson and RatPac-Dune’s Steven Mnuchin are serving as executive
producers.
'Simply put, Clint Eastwood is at
the top of his game, not to mention a global treasure,' said Silverman. 'On the
heels of his extraordinary work in American Sniper, it is tremendously exciting
to see him explore the life of another captivating true-life hero.'
He said the movie will go beyond
Sullenberger's calm handling of US Airways flight 1549 and explore events
behind the scenes as the drama unfolds.
'I am very glad my story is in
the hands of gifted storyteller and filmmaker Clint Eastwood,' said
Sullenberger. Back in January, he was among a group of pilots and passengers
who attended a ceremony to mark the fifth anniversary of the remarkable event.
'I'm filled with joy and
gratitude about what was able to be accomplished by so many five years ago
today and the fact that all 155 passengers and crew are here today because of
it,' said Sullenberger.
The flight had just taken off
from LaGuardia Airport when a flock of geese disabled the engines. Sullenberger
safely glided to a water landing and all 155 passengers and crew members were
rescued. Sullenberger and about a half-dozen passengers gathered at the NY
Waterway ferry terminal to thank the ferry boat company, whose boats quickly
got to the downed plane and rescued people. They then boarded a boat and sailed
out to the area of the landing, where they raised a toast.
Eastwood struck critical and
commercial gold last year with his biopic of American war hero Chris Kyle. American
Sniper was the highest-grossing film of 2014 in the United States - taking $350
million - it was also the highest-grossing war film of all time unadjusted for
inflation and Eastwood's highest-grossing film to date. At the 87th Academy
Awards, it received six nominations, including Best Picture, Best Adapted
Screenplay and Best Actor for Bradley Cooper, ultimately winning one award for
Best Sound Editing.
Tom Hanks is in final talks to play
the pilot who flew his stricken aircraft into the Hudson river, saving all 155
passengers, in Clint Eastwood’s real-life drama Sully.
Sully will be based on
Sullenberger’s New York Times bestselling memoir Highest Duty: My Search for
What Really Matters, which has been adapted to the screen by Perfect Stranger
writer Todd Komarnicki. Eastwood turned down the chance to direct Jonah Hill in
the story of Olympic bomb-plot hero Richard Jewell in order to take on the
film.
The Oscar-winning film-maker, 85, has his pick of Hollywood projects
after American Sniper scored $543m worldwide to become the top-grossing film of
2014 at the US box office on the back of a surge of patriotism.
Sully would mark Hanks’s latest
in a series of recent roles playing totemic real-life figures. In 2013 the
58-year-old Oscar-winning star of Philadelphia played heroic merchant mariner
Captain Richard Phillips in Captain Phillips, and iconic film-maker Walt Disney
in Saving Mr Banks.
