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Hanks, known for playing nice guys, stars in
"News of the World," out in U.S. movie theaters on Dec. 25. He
joked that he likes to think of the film as "'The Mandalorian,'
without light sabers."
"There's no reason to make a Western just because you get to
wear comfortable clothes and a hat. It has to be about something
bigger than just the genre," Hanks said.
Set after the U.S. Civil War, the film follows Captain Jefferson
Kyle Kidd (Hanks) as he travels across a divided America reading
the news in small towns. He meets up with a traumatized girl,
played by newcomer Helena Zengel, who was taken by the Native
American Kiowa tribe years ago and decides to deliver her back
to her surviving relatives.
For Hanks and director Paul Greengrass, "News of the World" is
about the power of healing after fractious events.
"It felt to me such a contemporary story - the world bitterly
divided, (the) post-Civil War landscape, the desperate desire
for healing but not knowing what the road to healing looks
like," said Greengrass.
Although filming took place more than a year ago, the story
takes place against a background of the epidemics of cholera and
meningitis that hit the United States in the late 19th century.
Hanks said the eerily prescient arrival of the film this week
during the long coronavirus pandemic and the aftermath of
divisive U.S. elections in November reflects the power of movie
making.
"Here we are, we made a movie that takes place in 1870 and it
speaks to 2020. Ain't that the movies in a nutshell? That you
can see a film that is about people riding horses and it's like
'Wow! That's really speaking about what it's like today'," he
said.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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