What’s better than Tom Hanks finally coming to Broadway? How about him playing the lead role of a journalist in New York City during the 1980s, at the height of its corruption and scandal? That’s just what you’ll see as Hanks steps into the shoes of Mike McAlary, a fictional character from the play Lucky Guy, written by the late Nora Ephron.

As McAlary follows the lives of the residents and some of New York’s biggest politicians, he uncovers some of the deepest police corruption; writing about it in a way that would compel anyone all the while. The biggest story uncovered by McAlary surrounded Abner Louima, an immigrant from Haiti that had been beaten and brutalized by New York City police in a station house in 1997. While that story landed him in a libel suit for defamation against the NYPD, it also won him a Pulitzer Prize.

Hanks was in talks to take on the role of McAlary when Ms. Ephron passed away this summer. She also wrote hit films When Harry Met Sally, and Sleepless in Seattle, in which Hanks also starred.

Lead producer of the play, Colin Callender, said that he could “think of no more fitting tribute to her extraordinary writing and remarkable body of work” than to continue on with the play as scheduled. In addition to Callender and Hanks, the play also has a director, which will be George C. Wolfe.

Previews for the play will begin on March 1 at the Broadhurst Theatre, with an opening night set for April 1.