Tom Hanks and HBO are getting together again to chronicle another important moment in American history. As an actor, Hanks has captured our nation’s finest moments of president-meeting, astronaut-rescuing, Nazi-fighting, and mermaid-fucking. And as a producer, Hanks has worked with HBO to present more Nazi-fighting and astronaut moon-going-to.
But those great moments are in the past. Hanks is reteaming with HBO to show that America still has greatness in the present, with a miniseries about what Americans now do best: sending our jobs to China. Factory Man, based on Beth Macy’s nonfiction bestseller, examines America’s great national project of offshoring—a practice that began in the 1960s, had enthusiastic proponents in every presidents Reagan, Clinton, and both Bushes, and has given America such great things as falling wages, high unemployment, and worst of all, NBC sitcom Outsourced.
Since watching once-mighty American cities like Detroit and Buffalo fall into ruin may not make for feel-good television, Factory Man will instead focus on an outlier: Bassett Furniture, a family-owned Virginia manufacturing company that vowed to hire American, in the face of the constant temptation of cheaper Chinese labor.
Having explored everything the present have to offer, Hanks and HBO will also develop a miniseries about Lewis & Clark with Casey Affleck as Lewis, based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage. No word as to whether Matt Damon will play Clark, and the two will just wander around in circles for three hours.