Why fix what isn’t broken? After a pair of films in Greyhound and Finch, Tom Hanks and his Playtone production label are staying in league with Apple TV+. Deadline reports Hanks, producing partner Gary Goetzman, and Playtone have inked a multi-year television deal with Apple’s streaming service, and as part of that deal they’ll be working on a sequel to Greyhound, the WWII thriller that was released to streaming in 2020.
Hanks’ relationship with Apple was already pretty tight. Masters of the Air, his third live-action WWII drama series following Band of Brothers and The Pacific, moved from HBO to Apple TV+ where it has just wrapped shooting.
As for Greyhound, the naval film starred Hanks as Commander Ernest Krause, commanding officer of the USS Keeling aka Greyhound, on a dangerous Allied escort mission just months after the U.S. officially entered WWII.
The film was originally made to be a big-time theatrical blockbuster released by Sony, but they understandably got cold feet due to the pandemic. Apple swooped in and paid a hefty price, and they obviously feel the cost was worth it to deliver more.
