Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio are teaming up for a new biopic about former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.
Deadline reports:
“Gorbachev serves as a consultant on the project, which captures the dissolution of the USSR through his eyes. … The movie, written by former Hell On Wheels showrunner John Shiban and executive produced by DiCaprio, Jennifer Killoran, Hanks, Goetzman and Industry Entertainment’s Keith Addis, stems from DiCaprio’s relationship with Gorbachev. The two met when the Russian Nobel Peace Prize winner appeared in DiCaprio’s environmental movie The 11th Hour.”
Also of note, former Washington Post Moscow bureau chief David Hoffman will be serving as a consultant on the film. Hoffman’s tremendous book Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy, which won the Pulitzer Prize, would be essential material for anyone making a film about the Soviet Union in Gorbachev’s time. It’s good to hear that Hoffman will be involved with the production.
