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Movies & TV

22nd Oct 2020

Tom Hanks is a cowboy taking on the Wild West in first trailer for News Of The World

Eoghan Doherty

Tom Hanks

I’m the cowboy now…

Poignant piano music? Check.

Evocative soft lighting? Check.

Tom Hanks in a warm and cuddly father figure role who also knows how to handle a shotgun? Check.

Yeah, it’s safe to say we’re probably going to really like News Of The World.

Set five years after the end of the American Civil War, Tom Hanks is Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a war veteran who travels from town to town, reading the news and telling stories to the people he meets along the way.

In Texas, he crosses paths with a lone, young girl, Johanna (Helena Zengel), who he vows to return to her rightful guardians, no matter what it takes.

Hanks and director Paul Greengrass – the fantastic filmmaker behind Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum – previously teamed up for Best Picture nominee, Captain Phillips, in 2013, so we’re expecting good things when News Of The World is (hopefully) released in Irish cinemas, pandemic-pending.

Plus, seeing as Hanks perfectly provided the voice for Toy Story’s Woody, it’s safe to say he’s got form as a cowboy. Because that’s the way it works.

And no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

This has NOTHING to do with that muck-rag newspaper, the News Of The World. This is completely different.

See for yourself…

Clip via Universal Pictures Ireland 

Talking about News Of The World, director Paul Greengrass said,

“the film is set in a bitterly divided, dangerous world and it is a journey of discovery for both Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) and the girl, Johanna (Helena Zengel).

Both characters are lost in different ways and are searching for belonging.  That is what gives the journey tremendous emotional power.  Kidd and Johanna have great adventures whilst overcoming great dangers, and ultimately, the film is about a journey towards redemption.”

His leading man, Tom Hanks, went on to say,

“I love listening to a great story as much as I like telling one, and that’s why I was so excited about playing Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd.  He is a storyteller, he is driven, emotional, he is noble, and he is moved by the pursuit of the truth.

Kidd wanted to communicate an authentic worldview to his audiences because he knew that, along with education and entertainment, the powers of enlightenment could be exchanged in the news readings that he gave.”

News Of The World is due to be released in cinemas on 1 January 2021

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