We Can't Wait! #8: Bridge of Spies
Friday, March 13, 2015 at 9:23PM 
Billy Magnussen (Into the Woods) on the set with Tom HanksTeam Experience is counting down our 15 most anticipated for 2015. Here's Tim...
Who & What: Steven Spielberg directs Tom Hanks for the first time since 2004, working from a screenplay written by Joel & Ethan Coen (whose solitary collaboration with Hanks, 2004's The Ladykillers, saw one of his best performances stranded in their worst movie). It's a true story about a lawyer negotiating the release of an American pilot from the Soviet Union during one of the tensest stretches of the Cold War.
Why We're Excited About It: To paraphrase one of the writers' most iconic lines, "Spielberg. The Coens. What do you need, a road map?" The collision of two of the most distinct voices in contemporary American cinema, and in a genre (political thriller) that neither of them have ever quite dabbled in before, is absolutely worth being excited for regardless of any other considerations. But of course, those other considerations exist: Hanks working reuniting with filmmakers who have drawn out some excellent work from him in the past, the maddeningly under-used Amy Ryan with a big part, a ripe historical setting that Hollywood has been weirdly uncurious about exploring. In my totally private capacity as the most tedious kind of craft nerd, finding out what costume designer Kasia Walicka-Maimone has lined up after her tremendous work in A Most Violent Year is a pretty big draw, too.
What If It All Goes Wrong? Not only do Spielberg and the Coens have distinct voices, they're diametrically opposed voices, too. The king of audience-friendly sentiment and the court jesters of detached cynicism are perhaps likelier to clash atonally than find some third way that combines their disparate strengths. And so soon after Unbroken, it's hard to get unreservedly excited about the prospect of a Coen script that the brothers aren't also directing.
When: October 16th in the United States - the same weekend that has recently given us 12 Years a Slave and Birdman, which speaks to Disney's understandable suspicion that they have a major Oscar player on their hands.
Previously...
#9 Taxi
#10 Freeheld
#11 A Bigger Splash
#12 The Dressmaker
#13 The Hateful Eight
#14 Knight of Cups
#15 Arabian Nights
Sidebar 3 Animated Films
Sidebar 2 Tomorrowland
Sidebar 1 Avengers: Age of Ultron
Intro Pick a Blockbuster
Reader Comments (8)
I'm a little more optimistic than you are. First, I think Hanks has been on a roll for some time now, especially in drama. I think Munich (a favorite of mine) comes pretty close to political thriller and Spielberg could use a bit of cynicism in his work. I'm ready to hear more.
Yeah, when I think "political thriller", Munich is one of the first things that comes to mind.
Which is one of the several reasons I'm excited for this project. That and my fanboyism for Spielberg and his A-team(Kaminski, Williams, Kahn) is only surpassed by my fanboyism for Tom Hanks.
Adam Stockhausen is doing the production design for this. I'm excited to see it.
I'm looking forward to this, I prefer Speilberg when he isn't getting too serious. It's an interesting subject matter with very capable people working on it. Tom Hanks showed in "Captain Phillips" that he can be so very good on many levels.
Are we all pretending that The Terminal didn't happen? I'm fine with us going with Catch Me If You Can being the last time that Spielberg/Hanks teamed up, I just want to make sure I'm on the same page as the remainder.
The Terminal is tied with Always for "Spielberg movie everybody forget exists, even as they're watching it"
Wow, I totally did forget that. Changed it.
And Munich</I> is the exact reason for that "quite" modifier to "dabbled".
Actually Tim, I think a lot of Spielberg's work has elements of political thriller in addition to Munich. Amistad, Lincoln, Minority Report, Empire of the Sun, Schindler's List..... Not trying to pick a fight, but I think this is a genre he has under his belt
I would love to see the Columbo episode he directed.