Tom Hanks Unveils His Mr. Rogers

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/238759/tom-hanks-unveils-his-mr-rogers/

NEW YORK (AP) — Ever since it was first announced, the idea of Tom Hanks playing Mr. Rogers has seemed like dream casting, a match as snug as a warm zip-up sweater.

“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” starring Hanks as the host of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” premiered Saturday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, revealing a nuanced and layered performance by Hanks that goes well beyond the cardigan.


The film, which will open in theaters Nov. 22, isn’t a Fred Rogers biopic but dramatizes the true story of magazine journalist (Matthew Rhys, playing a fictionalized version of writer Tom Junod) who went to Pittsburgh to profile Rogers for Esquire magazine. Directed by Marielle Heller (“The Diary of a Teenage Girl”), “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” focuses on how an encounter with the hyper-sensitive, open-hearted Rogers transformed the cynical New York reporter. Hanks’ performance is only a part of the drama, but his gentle, whole-body transformation into Rogers drew thunderous applause from festival audiences and rave reviews from critics. “Hanks isn’t just good — he’s transporting,” wrote Variety.

“We never make fun of Fred. We slow down to listen to him,” Hanks said following the film’s screening. “It was always going to be, I think, deconstructing the myth of it to show he was a regular guy who went out for Chinese food. At the same time, there is this mystery. What’s his motivation?”

“One of the most wonderful things, too, is he was actually an ordained minister who never mentioned God on his show,” Hanks said.

Tom Hanks to release the Biography on Fred Rogers on November 22nd.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...ful-day-neighborhood-starts-a-sweater-1255784


And Now the Movie has been released.

While the acrylic cable-patterned cardigan was made in several different colors throughout the years, the red one was the most iconic. “There is a very deliberate gentility and comfort you can’t get with another garment,” says costume designer Arjun Bhasin.
For both young and old, the memory of the opening scene of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood is still familiar. Fred Rogers walks in the door, changes into a cardigan and a pair of navy tennis shoes (Sperry to be exact), and his call to arms was a simple one, “Please, won’t you be my neighbor?”

Similar to Dorothy’s ruby red slippers, Mr. Rogers’ signature zip-up cardigan was essential for the onscreen transformation in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. It also proved to be a starting point for costume designer Arjun Bhasin’s work on the upcoming film.

Two-time Academy Award-winner Tom Hanks portrays the former Pittsburgh Presbyterian minister-turned-beloved media star in the drama inspired by award-winning journalist Tom Junod’s 1998 Esquire profile on Fred Rogers and their subsequent real-life friendship.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/ente...Rss&utm_campaign=usatodaycommovies-topstories

FORT MYERS, Florida – They weren’t neighbors, but Mary Manz Simon considered Mister Rogers to be a friend. In fact, they were pen pals.

The two corresponded for almost a decade, starting after Simon interviewed the TV personality for a 1994 article in Christian Parenting Today magazine. That led to many cards and letters and even a few visits to Fred Rogers’ Pittsburgh studio, where she chatted with him in his office and saw him taping his iconic children’s TV series, "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood."

“The friendship just kind of grew,” says Simon, 71. “He was just a remarkable person.”

Rogers died in 2003, but he’s back on people's minds with the new Tom Hanks movie “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" (in theaters now).

 

[seatownmedia]

https://tvnewscheck.com/article/top-news/238759/tom-hanks-unveils-his-mr-rogers/




Tom Hanks to release the Biography on Fred Rogers on November 22nd.

Any early reviews?