Tom Hanks to make Broadway debut in Lucky Guy

Tom Hanks will make his Broadway debut in Lucky Man (AP)

Hollywood actor Tom Hanks will make his debut on Broadway playing a tabloid journalist in the play Lucky Guy.

Written by Nora Ephron the play is a biopic of journalist Mike McAlary who died in 1998 aged 41. The Pulitzer Prizer-winner famously covered the police scandals of the 1980s while working for the New York Daily News.

Hanks, 56, best-known for Forrest Gump and Apollo 13, previously collaborated with screenwriter Ephron on Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail.

Ephron, who died in June, also penned a number of hits from the era also starring Meg Ryan including When Harry Met Sally and, more recently, Julie and Julia starring Meryl Streep.

Lucky Guy is a return to Ephron's journalistic roots.

It will be directed by two-time Tony Award-winner George C. Wolfe and is due to open in April at the Broadhurst Theatre.

Hanks has previously played Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew, at a festival in Cleveland, but this will be his first Broadway appearance.