{"id":13012,"date":"2018-02-05T18:02:35","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T23:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=13012"},"modified":"2018-02-05T18:02:35","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T23:02:35","slug":"tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html","title":{"rendered":"Tom Hanks to Play Mr. Rogers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"14970103713_7c6915ddfa_b\"<\/a>Tom Hanks will play the role of Mr. Rogers in the upcoming biopic \u201cYou Are My Friend.\u201d The film was inspired by the real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and the award-winning journalist, Tom Junod. The two meet when the cynical journalist begrudgingly accepts an assignment to write a piece about Mr. Rogers, and Junod finds his perspective on life completely transformed.<\/p>\n

The script was written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, and Marielle Heller is taking the reins as the film\u2019s director. \u201cI\u2019m thrilled to be making \u2018You Are My Friend,\u2019\u201d said Heller. \u201cThe script knocked me out with its message of kindness and its exploration of the human spirit. As a mother, I am so inspired by the teachings of Fred Rogers, and as a human I am in awe of his life\u2019s work. I can\u2019t wait to bring his story to the public and be part of such a thoughtful, smart group of people who are all coming together to make this film, which truly feels to me like an antidote to our very fractured culture.<\/p>\n

TriStar Pictures landed the distribution rights to \u201cYou Are My Friend,\u201d and TriStar President Hannah Mingella is as excited about the film as Heller. \u201cThis is the perfect alchemy of talent coming together at the perfect time to remind us all of the transformative power of kindness and respect to heal and to unite. We are proud to partner with Marielle, Tom and everyone at Big Beach to bring this inspirational true story to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the excitement surrounding the film\u2019s green light, there is not yet an official release date for \u201cYou Are My Friend.\u201d This is likely in part due to Hanks\u2019 filming schedule. He is planning to shoot \u201cGreyhound\u201d this year, a World War II drama. Hanks is also set to star in \u201cBios,\u201d a science fiction story that takes place on a post-apocalyptic earth.<\/p>\n

Hanks has big shoes to fill as Mr. Rogers, but the actor is no stranger to playing the roles of real life people.\u00a0 Hanks played Captain Richard Phillips in the 2013 movie \u201cCaptain Phillips\u201d which told the story of the hijacking of the MV Maersk Alabama. Hanks also took on the role of the hero Chesley Burnett \u201cSully\u201d Sullenberger III in Clint Eastwood\u2019s 2016 film \u201cSully.\u201d Sullenberger was the pilot responsible for the impossible water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in January of 2009. Despite the danger and difficulty of the landing, all the passengers and crew survived. This event came to be deemed the \u201cMiracle on the Hudson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Production for \u201cYou Are My Friend\u201d is set to begin in the fall, and producers Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf think the film comes at the perfect moment. \u201cNow more than ever, we all need a re-introduction to Fred Rogers\u2019 message of uncompromising love and kindness between all things. Mari Heller is the perfect visionary filmmaker to bring Noah and Micah\u2019s script to life and\u2026we have the quintessential actor to play Fred Rogers.\u201d<\/p>\n

One can only hope that Hanks is ready to tackle playing the role of yet another real life role model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Hanks will play the role of Mr. Rogers in the upcoming biopic \u201cYou Are My Friend.\u201d The film was inspired by the real-life friendship between Fred Rogers and the award-winning journalist, Tom Junod. The two meet when the cynical journalist begrudgingly accepts an assignment to write a piece about Mr. Rogers, and Junod finds…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3616,619],"class_list":["post-13012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","tag-mr-rogers","tag-tom-hanks"],"yoast_head":"\nTom Hanks to Play Mr. Rogers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tom Hanks will play the role of Mr. Rogers in the biopic \u201cYou Are My Friend\u201d which was inspired by the real-life friendship of Fred Rogers and Tom Junod.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom Hanks to Play Mr. Rogers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Hanks will play the role of Mr. Rogers in the biopic \u201cYou Are My Friend\u201d which was inspired by the real-life friendship of Fred Rogers and Tom Junod.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-05T23:02:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/02\/14970103713_7c6915ddfa_b-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Stephanie Hertzenberg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tom Hanks to Play Mr. Rogers","description":"Tom Hanks will play the role of Mr. Rogers in the biopic \u201cYou Are My Friend\u201d which was inspired by the real-life friendship of Fred Rogers and Tom Junod.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tom Hanks to Play Mr. Rogers","og_description":"Tom Hanks will play the role of Mr. Rogers in the biopic \u201cYou Are My Friend\u201d which was inspired by the real-life friendship of Fred Rogers and Tom Junod.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2018-02-05T23:02:35+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/02\/14970103713_7c6915ddfa_b-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Stephanie Hertzenberg","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html","name":"Tom Hanks to Play Mr. Rogers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/02\/14970103713_7c6915ddfa_b-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2018-02-05T23:02:35+00:00","dateModified":"2018-02-05T23:02:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/2accd57241ae3de281b15e255b66b126"},"description":"Tom Hanks will play the role of Mr. Rogers in the biopic \u201cYou Are My Friend\u201d which was inspired by the real-life friendship of Fred Rogers and Tom Junod.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/02\/14970103713_7c6915ddfa_b-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/files\/2018\/02\/14970103713_7c6915ddfa_b-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/02\/tom-hanks-play-mr-rogers.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tom Hanks to Play Mr. Rogers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/2accd57241ae3de281b15e255b66b126","name":"Stephanie Hertzenberg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/080\/080e3b9c5b3764a74a7323d03c0bfb80x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/080\/080e3b9c5b3764a74a7323d03c0bfb80x96.jpg","caption":"Stephanie Hertzenberg"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/authors\/s\/stephanie-hertzenberg.aspx"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/shertzenberg"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/616"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13014,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13012\/revisions\/13014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}