The last time that director Tom Tykwer and Tom Hanks collaborated the result was 2012's Cloud Atlas, one of the most ambitious and under-appreciated films of the last few years. So it is with great pleasure that we learn today that the two men are getting set to reunite on another project.
According to Deadline's sources, Hanks and Tykwer are now set to adapt A Hologram For The King, based on the novel by Dave Eggers. As you probably could have predicted, the plan is to have Tykwer direct the movie and take care of the screenplay with Hanks starring. The story follows a down-on-his-luck businessman who decides to leave America and try to find better fortune in Saudi Arabia, hoping to "stave off foreclosure, pay his daughter’s college tuition, and do something memorable." The project doesn't have a studio or financing attached yet, but wheels are in motion to fix that issue.
Hanks is currently on Broadway, starring in the Nora Ephron play Lucky Guy, but he actually still has major big screen plans in the second half of 2013. In October we will see him become Captain Phillips, the new film from director Paul Greengrass that tells the true story about how a ship captain helped save a number of lives when his vessell was hijacked by Somali pirates. Then in December he will be channeling Walt Disney when he becomes the studio founder in Saving Mr. Banks, the historical drama about how Disney worked to convince author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to let him create a film adaptation of Mary Poppins.
