(DreamWorks)
Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and history are usually a winning combination — Saving Private Ryan, anyone? — and they’re back with the Cold War thriller Bridge of Spies (in theaters Oct. 16.) The new trailer for the flick shows that it’s an intense one based on a true story: Hanks stars as Brooklyn insurance lawyer James B. Donovan, a master negotiator, who’s thrust into the public spotlight when he’s tasked to defend Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), a Soviet spy in New York City. Things get even more complicated when Donovan also has to travel to Berlin and broker an exchange of Abel for Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell), the CIA pilot of an American U-2 spy plane shot down in Russian airspace.
Directed by Spielberg, Bridge of Spies also features a screenplay co-written by Ethan and Joel Cohen as well as a cast including Scott Shepherd, Alan Alda and Amy Ryan.
(DreamWorks)
Spielberg recalls a time during the Cold War that his father visited Russia during a foreign-exchange program just after Powers was shot down in 1960, and in this clip he tells a memorable story about a Russian colonel pointing out the wreckage of the U-2 to him.
“There was tremendous fear and distrust of America from Russia, and a lot of paranoia and fear in America toward Russia, especially with the (atomic) bomb hovering over all of our heads.”
And in this clip, Hanks discusses Donovan’s mind for law, how he wasn’t used to the spycraft of it all and the fact that Donovan actually really liked Abel.
“He understood he was not an evil man. He was just a guy doing his job. And he did wonder if he was going to disappear in the Soviet system of punishment because he had been in jail in the United States.”
(DreamWorks)
