Hours after Jennifer Hudson revealed that she’s set to play Aretha Franklin in an upcoming biopic, TriStar Pictures announced that Tom Hanks is set to play Fred Rogers a.k.a Mr. Rogers, in the upcoming biopic You Are My Friend.
The movie will be directed by Marielle Heller (The Diary of a Teenage Girl), based on a script written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, both of whom worked on Amazon’s Transparent series.
the story will center around Rogers’s friendship with journalist Tom Junod. Nearly 20 years, ago, the “cynical” reporter was assigned to write a profile of the TV icon and host of the children’s show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood; though Junod went in with few expectations, the assignment ended up changing his outlook on everything. The end result was this classic 1998 Esquire profile.
“The script knocked me out with its message of kindness and its exploration of the human spirit,” Heller said in a statement, per Variety. “As a mother, I am so inspired by the teachings of Fred Rogers, and as a human I am in awe of his life’s work.”
It is important to note that Tom Hanks has some big shoes to fill. Rogers’ Emmy-nominated series was one of the longest-running children’s shows of all time. Over the years, he has become an icon of children’s education and entertainment. He also served as a champion of public television funding. Mr. Rogers died in 2003.
Hanks, meanwhile, has made a career of playing real-life characters including Walt Disney and Ben Bradlee in The Post.
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