Tom Hanks is in negotiations with Clint Eastwood and Warner Bros. to play the role of Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger in the studio’s forthcoming biopic movie about the life of the heroic pilot, it has been widely reported.

According to Deadline and multiple other sources, 58 year old Hanks is set to be the first person cast in the movie. Sullenberger became an instant national hero in January 2009 when he safely performed an emergency landing of a US Airways passenger jet on the Hudson River after a flock of geese had hit the plane moments after take-off from New York’s La Guardia airport, with all 155 passengers and crew surviving.

Tom HanksTom Hanks could play "Sully" Sullenberger in new biopic

Hanks, who has portrayed real-life heroes on the big screen in the past – Apollo 13 and Captain Phillips spring to mind – would seem to be the ideal casting for the part of ‘Sully’, as the veteran pilot became to be known.

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It was announced earlier in June that Eastwood, 85, had been named as the director of the new biopic. Following a number of critical successes with the likes of Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino and Invictus, the actor-turned-director scored a massive box office hit with American Sniper last year, which brought in $543.4 million worldwide for Warner Bros.

That film, like the one he’s about to embark upon, saw him successfully tell the story of a real-life person – American Navy SEAL marksman Chris Kyle. Quite reasonably, he’s decided to stay with the same studio for this next project and team up with a steady pair of hands like Hanks who can play heroism naturally.

The screenplay is being written by Todd Komarnicki, who is adapting it from Sullenberger’s autobiography ‘Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters’.

More: Clint Eastwood to direct “Sully” Sullenberger movie about heroic pilot’s life