The 54-year-old has co-written the script with `My Big Fat Greek Wedding` director Nia Vardalos and was keen from the start to cast Roberts in the character of a teacher in the movie, reported Us magazine.
"I had some teachers who looked like Julia. I would see them and think, `I love you, so there was never anyone but Julia. Still, even after she said yes to the role, I was the boss. That meant I got to say, `You don`t wear this dress, you wear that dress and Julia`s Julia, she can be intimidating," Hanks said.
Hanks will star as a middle-aged man who loses his job and decides to go back to college and Roberts plays his disillusioned teacher.
While it might be a little scary directing Roberts, the mom of three confessed that parts of filming were scary for her too.
"This was my first college experience. And the first time I had to speak in front of a classroom, I was apoplectic. All these faces looking up at me, thinking, `What is she going to teach us?. I needed to find my composure. It was very hard it was terrible, in fact," she said.