Tom Hanks to play Fred Rogers in

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Tom Hanks is going to play Fred Rogers in an upcoming film.

Quote

Tom Hanks will not be outdone by Jennifer Hudson. Mere hours after Hudson revealed a perfect bit of casting news by sharing that she’s set to play Aretha Franklin in an upcoming biopic, TriStar Pictures announced that Hanks is set to play Fred Rogers—more commonly known as Mr. Rogers—in the upcoming biopic You Are My Friend. America’s movie dad, meet America’s TV neighbor.

The film will be directed by Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl), based on a script written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, both of whom have written for Amazon’s Transparent. The story is about Rogers’s friendship with journalist Tom Junod. Nearly 20 years, ago, the “cynical” reporter was assigned to write a profile of the TV icon and host of the children’s show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood; though Junod went in with few expectations, the assignment ended up shifting his perspective on everything. The end result was this classic 1998 Esquire profile.

“The script knocked me out with its message of kindness and its exploration of the human spirit,” Heller said in a statement, per Variety. “As a mother, I am so inspired by the teachings of Fred Rogers, and as a human I am in awe of his life’s work.”

 

[SnazzyNazzy]

I am kind of excited about this movie, and can totally see Tom Hanks, as Mr Rogers. I used to watch that show every day as a kid (because as you know, in the 80's, TV was a perfectly fine "babysitter"). I used to get soo excited when the trolley came, because it was time to go to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. It was a totally amazing day, if Henrietta Pussycat was on the show.

Then when my kids were little bits, I would watch Mr Rogers with them. Watching it as an adult, it was kind of amazing, to see how much stuff I learned from that show. As an adult, it seemed like Mr Rogers Neighborhood, was more about teaching a kid about positive behaviors and learning how to be a decent person.

As an aside, I also bawled my eyes out, when Mr Rogers died.

[PennySycamore]

Tom seems perfectly cast as Mr Rogers.  

I've been reading Tom's book of short stories Uncommon Type and it's terrific!  It was inspired by Tom's collection of typewriters.  Need to post something about this in the QFoW "What are you reading now?" thread.