Steven Spielberg adds Amy Ryan, Alan Alda to Cold War thriller

Steven Spielberg is filling out the cast for this Tom Hanks-starring Cold War thriller about the lawyer trying to negotiate the release of a spy plane pilot captured by the Soviet Union.

Gone Baby Gone Oscar-nominee Amy Ryan will co-star as the wife of Hanks’ character, James Donovan, who won the Distinguished Intelligence Medal for his work trying to free U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers after he was shot down over Russian territory in 1960.

Also in negotiations to join the cast is another Academy Award nominee, Alan Alda, for an unspecified role, according to DreamWorks Pictures, which is co-financing the untitled project with 20th Century Fox.

The M*A*S*H TV star will join Billy Magnussen, soon to be seen as Rapunzel’s prince in the musical Into the Woods, and Eve Hewson (Enough Said) in the ensemble, which is set to begin shooting in September in New York and Berlin.

Joel and Ethan Coen wrote the script for the film, based on a previous draft by writer Matt Charman, and the project marks the latest collaboration between Hanks and Spielberg after Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me If You Can, and The Terminal. The pair also produced the historical miniseries Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

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