Bringing the dreaded moment of sob-o’clock—when we inevitably end up breaking down crying in some mall multiplex somewhere because Tom Hanks smiled at us while putting on a sweater—ever closer to reality, Deadline reports today that Hanks’ turn as children’s entertainer/documentary subject/modern religious icon Fred Rogers now has a name: A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood.
Directed by Can You Ever Forgive Me?’s Marielle Heller, the film isn’t being described as a Rogers biopic, or even simply as a way for America to exorcise its demons by merging its various pop culture father figures into some sort of God-like, ever-smiling OmniDad. Rather, it’s an adaptation of Tom Junod’s article “Can You Say…Hero?”, in which a cynical journalist has his hard, rind-like layers gently rubbed away by exposure to Rogers’ obvious goodness. Matthew Rhys will star as the fictional version of Junod, while Hanks will gently step out of, and then into, the casual sneakers of Rogers himself, beaming a look of pure affection at everybody in ra—*sob*
God damn it, there’s something in our eye.