Spielberg to shoot spy thriller in Wroclaw

Steven Spielberg. Wikipedia/G.Biard

The Lower Silesian city of Wroclaw will double as 1960s Berlin in the movie, which stars Tom Hanks in the lead role, continuing a long-running collaboration between the actor and the director.

The movie is based on real events and Hanks plays New York lawyer James Donovan, who was given the onerous task of negotiating the release of a US pilot shot down in a spy plane over the Soviet Union in 1960.

The so-called U-2 Incident prompted the first exchange of spies between the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Celebrated duo the Cohen Brothers have worked on the script, and filming began in New York on 8 September.

Spielberg shot his Oscar-winning Holocaust film Schindler's List in Krakow in 1993. Six years later he wrote a letter of recommendation to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, calling for Polish film-maker Andrzej Wajda to be awarded an hononary Oscar, and Wajda duly won the award in 2000.

Spielberg chose Wroclaw as a location for his current project after an unofficial visit to the city in July.

The director is cooperating with the Wroclaw Film Commission for the Silesian section of the shoot.

St James Place is due to be premiered in October 2015. (nh)