HBO Hires Tom Hanks to Produce Mini-Series on Black Boxer Jack Johnson

Tom Hanks has joined forces with HBO to produce Jack Johnson, a HBO miniseries about the life of the first African-American world heavyweight champion.

Told in four to six parts, the miniseries is based on Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise And Fall Of Jack Johnson , a book by Geoffrey C. Ward which Ken Burns adapted into the Emmy-winning PBS documentary.

Ken Burns is going to direct the HBO series. Beau Willimon, writer of Ides of March will pen the screenplay.