Predictably, Tom Hanks Looks Perfect As Mister Rogers

Tom Hanks is currently shooting a movie as Fred Rogers. You don't get many better pairings of actor and character than that - and the above image, released today by Sony/TriStar, kinda proves it.

Originally dubbed You Are My Friend, the movie is currently untitled, and being directed by Marielle Heller, from a script by Transparent writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster. Heller debuted in 2015 with the stunning coming-of-age drama Diary of a Teenage Girl, and whose Can You Ever Forgive Me? has been winning praise on the festival circuit this year. She's got exactly the empathetic touch you'd want someone making a Mister Rogers movie to have.

Heller's film won't be a cradle-to-grave biopic, but will instead focus on the friendship between Rogers and journalist Tom Junod, who wrote an extensive profile of Rogers back in 1998. The Americans' Matthew Rhys will play Junod, while Chris Cooper and This Is Us' Susan Kelechi Watson will co-star in unknown roles.

Hanks will hit the screen as Mister Rogers next year. In the meantime, I cannot recommend Morgan Neville's documentary Won't You Be My Neighbour enough.