Tom Hanks is keeping his next film in the family.
According to Variety, the two-time Oscar winner and his actor son, Colin, are linking up for some hocus pocus on the big screen in the magician comedy The Great Buck Howard.
The younger Hanks will play Buck, a wannabe magician who goes to work as an assistant to a celebrated conjurer whose career is in decline. The elder Hanks will take on the smaller role of Buck's father, who's not exactly thrilled about his son's job aspirations. Kevin Kline is in final talks to play the veteran illusionist and Buck's mentor.
The Great Buck Howard, which is being written and directed by Sean McGinly, will be coproduced by Hanks and partner Gary Goetzman via their Playtone Productions, in collaboration with Bristol Bay, the corporate sibling of Walden Media. The latter two companies make up the Anschultz Film Group, which is funding the modestly budgeted flick and will be tasked with securing a future distribution deal.
Walden, which scored a massive box-office hit this holiday season with its adaptation of C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is also working with Playtone on City of Ember, a fantasy based on Jeanne DuPrau's popular book series.
Playtone is currently overseeing filming on the Warner Bros. feature-length 'toon The Ant Bully, a 3-D IMAX film called Magnificent Desolation and the HBO original series Big Love, debuting this Sunday.
The Great Buck Howard marks the second occasion the Hanks tandem have worked together professionally--the first time coming when Tom cast Colin in a bit part as a male page in his 1996 feature helming debut, That Thing You Do!. Colin Hanks also appeared in HBO's Emmy-winning 2001 World War II miniseries Band of Brothers, also produced by his dad.
Other notable film and TV credits for the junior Hanks include 2000's Whatever It Takes, a stint on the WB's Roswell, and a lead role opposite Jack Black in the 2002 comedy Orange County. He also costarred with Black this past December in Peter Jackson's epic remake of King Kong and is planning to reunite with him one more time in the upcoming Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny, based on Black's acoustic metal act.
As for dear old dad, Tom Hanks will next be seen in Ron Howard's highly anticipated film version of Dan Brown's mega-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, due out in June.
Shooting on The Great Buck Howard is set to begin in July for a 2007 release.