Swedish comedy hit A Man Called Ove has been in Hollywood's remake sights since a year or so after it arrived on the scene. Tom Hanks has been attached to star since 2017, and now Marc Forster is aboard to direct.
Hannes Holm's film was released in Sweden in 2015 and earned itself an Oscar nomination. It took a little longer to reach elsewhere (the film opened in the UK in June 2017), and set the antenna wagging.
Based on Fredrik Backman's bestseller, the story follows a grumpy widower whose sense of unhappiness is heightened when he's unceremoniously dumped as head of the neighbourhood association where he lives. With that following him forced to retire from his job, he decides to commit suicide, only to have every attempt thwarted by a situation leading him to help a needy friend or neighbour. And that starts to alter his outlook on life...
David Magee, who worked with Forster on Finding Neverland, has written the script and the cameras should be rolling this year.