Hi, neighbor. Here's biopic casting that only America's Dad could take on: Tom Hanks will be filling the shoes (before he slips them off at the door) of beloved friendly icon Mr. Rogers. The film will be called You Are My Friend and center around Fred Rogers's relationship with journalist and cynic Tom Junod.
The film will also have a formidable assemblage beyond Hanks...
Marielle Heller will be taking on directing reigns from a script by Transparent writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster. The Diary of a Teenage Girl fans will be well aware that Heller's eye for the imaginative and deeply personal make for an exciting fit for Mr. Rogers neighborhood and holistic outlook. That film had us excited for whatever may come next, and this year she'll be giving us the Melissa McCarthy-led and Nicole Holofcener-scripted Can You Ever Forgive Me.
With Sundance doc Won't You Be My Neighbor? opening this summer, Rogers will be back in our cultural consciousness. Naturally the news of one of our most beloved actors playing such a prominant social figure has our awards-wheels turning. Particularly when Rogers' lessons of kindness and compassion could be a comfort to the masses and smartly delivered by a filmmaker like Heller. But Hanks is oddly underestimated and underrewarded these days, even when working slightly against type like in The Post or delivering a career high as in Captain Phillips. If Friend checks all boxes, could the combination of a fresh filmmaker and biopic prestige be what brings the actor back to the Oscar fold?
But maybe our concerns should immediately go to Rogers iconography first. If The Post gave us The Caftan, maybe You Are My Friend will give us a cozy companion: The Cardigan.