Exclusive: Tom Hanks Making The Negotiator, Remaking The Kevin Spacey Movie?
Tom Hanks is starring in a new thriller titled The Negotiator, which shares striking similarities with the 1998 movie of the same title.
Tom Hanks is starring in The Negotiator, an upcoming thriller for Sony Pictures, which may be a remake of the 1998 Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey movie of the same name according to our trusted and proven sources. While it would seem out of character for the star of Catch Me If You Can to remake a comparatively minor late-1990s action thriller, it would not actually be the first time he pulled a move like that. However, if Tom Hanks is indeed making a new version of Spacey and Jackson’s The Negotiator, hopefully it turns out better than his last attempt at a remake.
The Tom Hanks movie titled The Negotiator is said to involve the two-time Academy Award winner portraying a skilled negotiator (naturally) brought in to resolve a hostage crisis; as if that were not a tense enough premise for a movie, it seems that Hanks begins to suspect there is more to the hostage situation than he has been informed of. Based on that, it sounds like Tom Hanks and The Negotiator are promising a nice little thriller of a movie of the type that used to be common in the 1980s and 1990s.
Interestingly, much of the same description can be applied to the Kevin Spacey/Samuel L. Jackson The Negotiator, which had both men playing Chicago police negotiators who find themselves embroiled in a tangle of corruption and violence. The movie was directed by F. Gary Gray (who was also behind Gerard Butler’s Law Abiding Citizen, among many others) and made a respectable $88 million at the box office, though it reportedly ended up losing money after advertising costs.
The Tom Hanks version of The Negotiator will be directed by Aaron Schneider, who previously partnered with the Toy Story actor for 2020’s Greyhound, the little-remembered war drama which marked Hanks’ periodic return to WWII movies to revive his spirit. At the very least, it seems it was a fruitful enough pairing for Hanks to want to work with Schneider again.
Tom Hanks’ most notable attempt to remake an older film was 2004’s The Ladykillers, a black comedy crime caper adapting the 1955 British movie of the same name. Despite Hanks’ presence and being directed by the critically adored Joel and Ethan Coen, the movie was considered a decidedly weak effort for everyone involved and is most remembered for the actor’s Colonel Sanders-like villainous character.
It is entirely possible that Tom Hanks’ The Negotiator is completely unrelated to the 1998 film and they simply share a name and a broadly similar plot (although with a title like that, there’s not a lot else it could be about). It would be interesting to see if Hanks attempts to elevate a largely forgotten movie, but, on the other hand, this could simply be a fun genre exercise for the Forrest Gump star. Only time will tell.
