Tom Hanks Battles Somali Pirates In ‘Captain Phillips’ [Trailer]

Tom Hanks will return to the high seas in Captain Phillips, a based-in-reality drama directed by Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum), according to a Wednesday report from The Wrap.

The last time the Academy Award-winning actor found himself near water (on the big screen anyway), it was in the 2000 film Cast Away. This time, he’ll be facing a gang of Somali pirates as the titular captain.

Captain Phillips will be based on the memoir by Captain Richard Phillips, who topped headlines in 2009 after surrendering himself to pirates in order to save the lives of crew members aboard the MV Maersk Alabama.

The book is entitled A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea.

As helmsman, Paul Greengrass has some experience bringing real-life drama to theaters. In 2006, his United 93 stirred a country still raw from the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The film told another similarly heroic story in which crew members, hearing of the 9-11 attacks and realizing they would soon be used as a fourth weapon, overtook the plane and crashed it into the ground, thus foiling a terrorist plot and dying heroes in what would ultimately begin the US attack against Al-Qaeda.

Phillips’ heroism deserved a movie and, many would say, an equally noble star of Tom Hanks’ caliber — he was recently named the most trusted man in America by Reader’s Digest — to bring it to life.

Here’s a trailer for the curious (as if you need it):

And here’s the real Captain:

As for the rest of Hanks’ 2013, he has one other film, but it should be a biggie.

Saving Mr. Banks will release on December 20, 2013 — Oscar bait, anyone? — and will tell the story of author P.L. Travers’ travels from London to Hollywood as Walt Disney Pictures adapts a little book she wrote called Mary Poppins.

Hanks is (of course) Walt Disney.

Which Tom Hanks film do you most want to see — Captain Phillips or Saving Mr. Banks?

[Image via Jaguar PS / Shutterstock.com]