12-year-old Thomas Horn will costar with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock in Stephen Daldry's adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  Horn's previous claim to fame was winning $31,800 on Jeopardy! after scoring $12,000 in the final wager.  Sadly, I don't think his answer was "Suck It, Trebek" or "Kebert Xela".  According to Deadline, "Daldry (who previously directed The Reader) needed an exceptionally intelligent kid to play Oskar Schell, the bright and precocious 9-year old whose father is killed in the World Trade Center collapse. The youth finds a key left behind in his father’s belongings, and sets out on a cathartic journey to uncover the lock."

Hit the jump for the synopsis of Foer's novel.  Hanks is also attached to Kathryn Bigelow's Triple Frontier and an adaptation of Cloud Atlas.  Bullock is attached to star in Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, a comedy with Meryl Streep and Oprah Winfrey, and a Saturday Night Fever-like drama with her Proposal director Anne Fletcher.

Here's the synopsis for Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close [via Amazon]:

Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history.

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey.

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