The Trailer For The Mr. Rogers Movie Starring Tom Hanks Is Here & It Brought All The Feelings
July 22, 2019, 3:39 p.m.
One scene shows Mr. Rogers on the subway, being serenaded by children.
A still from the 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood' trailer
The late and beloved Fred Rogers, who died in 2003, made an impact through kindness, becoming a friend to many through his television show that aired on PBS for decades. His life and legacy were explored in a documentary last year, but now Hollywood is examining the public television force with a new, perfectly-cast film that has Tom Hanks playing Rogers. The first trailer for the feature, called A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, was released today:
The film is loosely based on Tom Junod's 1998 profile of Rogers, "Can You Say Hero?", which includes this anecdote that you'll see in the trailer:
Once upon a time, Mister Rogers went to New York City and got caught in the rain. He didn't have an umbrella, and he couldn't find a taxi, either, so he ducked with a friend into the subway and got on one of the trains. It was late in the day, and the train was crowded with children who were going home from school. Though of all races, the schoolchildren were mostly black and Latino, and they didn't even approach Mister Rogers and ask him for his autograph. They just sang. They sang, all at once, all together, the song he sings at the start of his program, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" and turned the clattering train into a single soft, runaway choir.
The Hollywood version of Junod is played by Matthew Rhys, who—when he tells his wife (Susan Kelechi Watson) that he's working on a story about Mr. Rogers—is told, "Please don't ruin my childhood." (He didn't.)
Another moment from the trailer is when Rogers is a guest on The Arsenio Hall Show; here's the real life verison of that:
The film is directed by Marielle Heller (Diary of a Teenage Girl, Can You Ever Forgive Me), who said that the Beautiful Day team's dream was always to have Tom Hanks play Rogers, though they didn't think he'd do it because he had already played so many real people (Sully, Walt Disney, Jim Lovell). Heller had met Hanks previously (she's friend with his son Colin) and says the actor signed on a week after she brought him the script.
The film comes out at Thanksgiving. If you want a test run at your ugly crying, you can watch that Morgan Neville documentary about Rogers Won't You Be My Neighbor? (currently streaming on HBO Now).
