It stars Tom Hanks as attorney James Donovan, a man who first defended an accused Russian operative, then negotiated his swap for an American pilot held by the Soviet Union. In 1964, Donovan published a memoir about his unforgettable experiences called Strangers on a Bridge .
During a March 3, 2015, interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Platt revealed the title to be Bridge of Spies; it was shot under the working title of St. James Place. [23] The film also received funds of €3.7 million, from the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF).
"Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg Film 'St. James Place' In Brooklyn Heights". brooklynnews.net. Archived from the original on October 15, 2014. Retrieved October 12, 2014. ^ Fink, Homer (September 29, 2014).
Retrieved March 19, 2015. ^ Keegan, Rebecca (October 9, 2015). "Spielberg, Hanks and Rylance talk about the Cold War, geopolitics and 'Bridge of Spies' ". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
James Donovan: Aren't you worried? Rudolf Abel: Would that help? James Donovan: It doesn't matter what people think. You know what you did.
Did Donovan tell his wife he was going to Berlin to negotiate the prisoner exchange? No. He deliberately fooled his wife. Business trips to Europe were an almost yearly occurrence.
Abel calls Donovan 'Stoykiy muzhik', which he translates as 'standing man'. This translation is a bit misleading, and, really, incorrect. Correct translation would be resilient man, or tough man. Using more familiar terms, it would mean a man who stands his ground.
As Abel proceeds, he tells Donovan he earlier sent the lawyer a gift � a painting, which turns out to be a portrait of Donovan in the courtroom. So Abel has left no doubt that Donovan will have the painting regardless of what happens on the bridge. (Interestingly, Donovan would later become president of Pratt.)
Donovan's Coat when he gets to East Berlin? A gang of boys steal it.
On June 21, 1957, he was arrested by the FBI, and on October 25, 1957, a federal district court in Brooklyn found him guilty of espionage, relying in part on testimony by Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Reino Hayhanen, who had defected to the West and who stated that he had been Abel's chief coconspirator in the United ...
James DonovanJames B. DonovanJames DonovanOccupationMilitary officer, lawyer, educatorKnown forNegotiating the 1962 exchange of Francis Gary Powers & Frederic Pryor for Rudolf AbelSpouse(s)Mary McKenna ( m. 1941)Children410 more rows
On May 1, 1960, an America U-2 spy plane was shot down in Soviet airspace, causing great embarrassment to the United States, which had tried to conceal its surveillance efforts from the USSR.
Abel ends up at a park where he sits on a bench to paint. He recovers a coin under a bench. He returns to his apartment and uses a razor to split the coin open, where he finds that it contains a piece of paper. Soon, Blasco and Gamber, joined by other FBI agents, storm into Abel's home and arrest him for espionage.