Hanks Is A Cowboy

A new Tom Hanks role is always cause for celebration here at Empire Towers - not only is he one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood, and a nice guy to boot, but his name is incredibly versatile for headlines. 'Hanks for the Memories', 'Hanks A Million, Tom', and, erm, 'Government says new all-terrain Hanks will help win war by Christmas' just being some of our favourites. Anyway... the party poppers have been going off here at Empire because Hanks has decided to get his britches all mussed up by signing on to his first Western. Boone's Lick will star Julianne Moore as a headstrong woman who embarks on a torturous and perilous quest, along with her four children and her husband, from Boone's Lick, Missouri, to the fort where her husband lives. Hanks will play her husband's brother and - eek! - fall in love with her along the way. Lasse Hallstrom is in talks to direct the Universal project, based on a Larry McMurtry novel, so expect Oscar nominations aplenty when it eventually opens, sometime in 2006.