No, Tom Hanks is not taking a leaf out of George Osborne's book and starting to work for a newspaper. Nor, even given the lack of success for tech thriller The Circle at the box office, is he supplementing his income by delivering them. News Of The World is actually a new script from Lion's acclaimed writer Luke Davies.
He's working from Paulette Jiles' novel, which was published last year. It's set in 1870 and follows a road trip through the tough territory of the West by unlikely travelling partners. One is Texan Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, who travels to far flung towns reading news to locals who can't access it, and making sure they know what's going on in the world. While on a trip to spread the word about the passage of the 15th Amendment – which gave voting rights to all men in the US – he's asked to escort a 10-year-old girl to her relatives in San Antonio after she was rescued from a native tribe that killed her family four years earlier.
There's just one problem; the girl didn't want to be rescued and resents being taken to live with people she has no memory of. And for Kidd, there's the dawning realisation that newspapers are becoming more widespread and that he's doomed to be a relic. Fox 2000 is backing the film and while there's no guarantee it'll hit screens, it has a much better chance with Hanks aboard.
Hanks is preparing to play editor Ben Bradlee in Steven Spielberg's new, currently untitled Pentagon Papers film and has been at work recording vocals as Woody for Toy Story 4, due on 19 July, 2019.
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