SALT LAKE CITY — “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” aired 31 seasons from 1968 to 2001, and now Tom Hanks is stepping into Fred Rogers’ tennis shoes and cardigan for the first trailer for “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”
According to Vanity Fair, the film is an adaptation of journalist Tom Junod’s 1998 Esquire profileof Rogers. The trailer shows Hanks performing television show segments and discussing whether Rogers is a hero with Matthew Rhys, who plays writer Lloyd Vogel in the film.
The trailer can be seen via YouTube.
“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” follows Vogel as he travels to Pittsburgh to interview Rogers despite his skepticism of the TV host’s unfailing optimism, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Director Marielle Heller also told EW she hopes Hanks’ performance will carry a similar inspiring effect to Rogers’ show, which taught children about feelings, mortality and how to deal with difficult current issues.
“(Rogers is) a guide for how to slow yourself down and connect with what’s true in your heart, your kindness, your patience, and your goodness,” Heller said. “Having his voice in my head for the past two years while I’ve been making this movie has made me a better parent.”
Reception on Twitter to Hanks’ performance and the trailer’s emotional undertones have been mostly positive so far — unlike the response to the recent trailer for Tom Hooper’s “Cats,” which I reported on for Deseret News.
“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” arrives in theaters this November.