Tom Hanks to produce new Kennedy film

Actor TOM HANKS has signed up to produce a new drama about the events leading up to former President JOHN F. KENNEDY's assassination.

The Cast Away star will team up with Gary Goetzman, who produced Hanks' That Thing You Do!, to document one of the most shocking events in American history, when Kennedy was shot dead in Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald on 22 November, 1963.

The project has been named Parkland, in reference to Dallas medical center Parkland Memorial Hospital, where Kennedy was officially pronounced dead.

It will feature an ensemble cast and examine how the fateful day played out in the eyes of a reporter, a young doctor, the politician's staff and his wife Jackie Kennedy Onassis, as well as Oswald's brother.

A release date for the independent film has not yet been set, according to trade publication Variety.