Tom Hanks To Play Captain Richard Phillips In True Somali Pirate Hostage Story

While Tom Hanks will exercise his increasingly rare funny bone in this summer’s “Larry Crowne,” the actor isn’t wasting any time lining up prestige projects. He’s already attached to star in Kathryn Bigelow‘s brewing drug trade drama “Triple Frontier” and he’s currently filming “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” with Stephen Daldry. Well, one more Oscar-bait picture has joined the queue.

Deadline reports that Hanks is set to star as Captain Richard Phillips in a film based on the book “A Captain’s Story: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea.”

As you might recall, Phillips made worldwide headlines back in 2009 when he gave himself up to Somali pirates in exchange for the safety of his crew after his boat was attacked. Three days later, Navy SEALs stormed the lifeboat Phillips was riding in with this captors, rescuing him, leaving three of pirates dead. It’s a compelling story and the wheels were put in motion for the film once Hanks gave a thumbs up to the script by Billy Ray (“Shattered Glass,” “Breach“).

No word yet on when this will roll but it has the powerhouse team of Scott Rudin, Michael De Luca, Dana Brunetti and Kevin Spacey producing. You can smell the Oscars already.