We could all use a little more kindness in our lives, and what better place to find it than at Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. There certainly seems to be more attention on the soothing educational children’s show host than ever, with the Sundance documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? the talk of Sundance. And now today sees a big step forward for the biopic You Are My Friend, which will now star Tom Hanks.
Hanks will play Fred Rogers in the film which will be directed by Marielle Heller (Diary of a Teenage Girl) and penned by Transparent writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster. The story will center on a real-life encounter between award-winning journalist Tom Junod as he accepts an assignment to profile Rogers and subsequently has his cynical worldview transformed.
Sounds a lot like the David Foster Wallace biopic The End of the Tour, and if done in the same conversation-heavy style could be very insightful. I expect it’ll have to be at least a little bit corny (Rogers was mad corny) but I trust Hanks to play it in a way that won’t be annoying. Casting him makes perfect sense; the most beloved, trusted actor in Hollywood as the man whose TV show our parents trusted to teach us many of our earliest life lessons. Hanks is pretty busy, but production is expected to roll this fall and you can expect it to be in the awards race next year. [Variety]
