Tom Hanks has become attached to a forthcoming cold war thriller from DreamWorks and The Weinstein Company, with Steven Spielberg considering stepping into the director's chair. The Oscar winner will take the lead in the untitled project, written by Matt Charman and produced by Marc Platt, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Tom HanksTom Hanks May Team Up With Steven Spielberg Again

The movie tells the true story of James Donovan, an attorney who was thrust into the center of the Cold War when he negotiated the release of the downed U-2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers. 

Should Spielberg take the project, it would mark the fourth feature film partnership between himself and Hanks. The pair previously collaborated on Saving Private Ryan, The Terminal and Catch Me If You Can - all well-received movies that performed strongly at the box-office. Hanks and Spielberg also acted as producers together on HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.

The sticking point for DreamWorks and Harvey Weinstein may well be Spielberg's seemingly endless list of scheduled projects. The Cold War thriller joins a list that also includes Robopacalypse, a sci-fi movie set up at Fox, and Montezuma, a movie about the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes, the famous Aztec ruler. However, the acclaimed director has not committed to any new projects since dropping out of American Sniper last year.  

Steven SpielbergDreamWorks and Harvey Weinstein Are Circling Steven Spielberg

As for Hanks, he's currently shooting  Tom Tykwer's A Hologram for the King - a drama about a failed American businessman who looks to recoup his losses by travelling to Saudi Arabia and selling his idea to a wealthy monarch. The movie is based on Dave Eggers' novel. The actor will also reprise his role as Robert Langdon in the latest Dan Brown adaptation The Lost Symbol. 

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Watch Tom Hanks shopping in SoHo with his family: