The new Steven Spielberg movie Bridge of Spies stars Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks. It takes place during the Cold War. When a US pilot is shot down in his U-2 spy plane by the Soviets, Brooklyn lawyer James Donovan (Hanks) is recruited by the CIA to negotiate the pilot’s release. If the Russians agree to release the US pilot, they get a convicted spy who Donovan defended in court years earlier. The screenplay (Matt Charmann, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen) is inspired by true events in Donovan’s life, as he wrote in the 1964 book, Strangers on a Bridge: The Case of Colonel Abel and Francis Gary Powers
The TV commercial promoting Bridge of Spies will air repeatedly during 60 Minutes on Sunday, September 27 (7pm, CBS). The show is kicking off its 48th season with a rare interview with the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Putin tells 60 Minutes‘ Charlie Rose that Americans must be bored if they’re so curious about him. He denies being a czar, and a “gangster”– a description of Putin that presidential candidate Marco Rubio likes to use. “How can I be a gangster if I worked for the KGB? Come on,” says Putin. There is no more Soviet Union, but Putin and Hanks both prove the tension is still high between the US and the Kremlin.
