Tom Hanks likely to play another real-life hero: Sully Sullenberger

Sources tell me it’s virtually a done deal now: Tom Hanks agreeing to play Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who miraculously landed his plane in the Hudson River in New York City in 2009 — saving the lives of all 155 people on board. The film will be directed by four-time Academy Award winner Clint Eastwood for Warner Bros., with a screenplay based on “Highest Duty: My Search For What Really Matters,” written by Sullenberger and the late Jeffrey Zaslow, the journalist, author and former Sun-Times advice columnist, who himself was tragically killed in a Michigan car crash in 2012.

Sullenberger became an instant hero for his skillful piloting, after a flock of geese hit the plane as it took off from LaGuardia Airport.

Obviously, this is not the first time two-time Oscar winner Hanks has played a real-life person on the big screen. Most recently, he portrayed Capt. Richard Phillips in “Captain Phillips,” the 2013 movie about the hijacking of a cargo ship by Somali pirates that was nominated for six Academy Awards.