Earlier this year, it was announced Tom Hanks will continue his white biopic domination by taking on the role of Fred Rogers in the film, You Are My Friend. Rogers is (of course) the creator and host of the famed television show, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Now, Sony Pictures is sharing the first look of Hanks in Mister Rogers' signature red cardigan sweater, taupe trousers, and blue sneakers while showing off his friendly smile. "Tom Hanks is Mister Rogers, coming to a neighborhood near you October 2019," reads their tweet with the nostalgia-inspiring photo giving us FEELS.
The film will be directed by Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Diary of a Teenage Girl). In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she classified it as more of a story about friendship between Rogers and writer Tom Junod rather than a biopic.
"It’s a story for our times, a story about kindness and family connection and trying to tap into our better self. God knows we need that right now!" she said. "In the research for the movie, the writers found that more people than they could possibly count credited Mr. Rogers with changing their lives...[It’s about] one man who’s in a critical point in his life—becoming a new father, having issues with his own father —and meeting Mr. Rogers to write a piece about him, thinking it’s going to be a bit of a puff piece, but it ends up changing his entire life."
The biopic comes after the successful documentary on the public access legend, Won't You Be My Neighbor, which came out earlier this year. The film went on to become the 12th highest earning documentary of all time in the box office, according to Box Office Mojo. While You Are My Friend won't be released until next year, Won't You Be My Neighbor is still in theaters.
