There aren’t many things capable of distracting from the real-life horror show that this year has been, but the warm and reassuring presence of ‘America’s Dad’ Tom Hanks is definitely one of them. The 64 year-old is always a welcome sight on our screens, but his last outing in World War II drama Greyhound largely slipped under the radar after it was pulled from theaters and sent straight to AppleTV+, something the actor admitted he wasn’t best pleased about. Luckily, though, there’s a second Hanks movie arriving later this year, and it’s still currently set to hit cinemas on Christmas Day.
News of the World marks uncharted territory for both star and director, with Hanks and the Bourne franchise’s Paul Greengrass tackling their first Western. The teaser trailer promised an epic drama that’s clearly being positioned for awards season glory, and the new full-length promo dives even deeper into the story, as you can see above.
News of the World looks to mark a more mature film for Greengrass, with the director best known for his frenetic shaky-cam style, which would admittedly be a terrible fit for what seems to be an elegiac prestige picture that harks back to the Golden Age of Hollywood when star-powered Westerns were all the rage.
Of course, Tom Hanks can always be relied on to give a solid performance, and his latest appears to be no different. Based on what we’ve seen so far, in fact, News of the World is shaping up as a serious awards season contender, one that hopefully manages to find an audience when it hits theaters in a couple months, because we all know that the industry is in dire need of rebounding.
