Tom Hanksis reuniting with his formerForrest Gumpcolleagues,Eric RothandRobert Zemeckis, for a new project. The trio previously came together for the 1994 Picture winner, which brought Oscars to Hanks (Best Actor), Roth (Best Adapted Screenplay), andZemeckis (Best Director). Now, all three are going to work together onHere, an adaptation of Richard McGuire’s novel of the same name. The project went into production at the beginning of 2022 and will be released in the U.S. by TriStar Pictures (of Sony Pictures) in a three-step rollout:
Herewas originally published as a six-page comic strip in 1989. McGuire then went on to write a 300-pageillustrated graphic novelon the original, which was published in 2014.Hereis regarded as one of the most successful and groundbreaking comic strips and is known for its unique approach towards short-form storytelling. The six-page strip depicted the story of a room and the events that occurred in that space at different points in time. The strip became famous for interlocking panels to depict a timeless and ageless story, wherein hundreds of thousands of years intertwine with each other, breathtakingly manipulating time and space in a single location. It almost sounds like another Hanks film,Cloud Atlas.
The novel was an expansion of the strip and would be the one that Roth will adapt for the screen. Just likeForrest Gump,Herewill go back and forth in time, but way beyond the 30-year span which depicted the character’s life in the former picture. The film is produced jointly by Zemeckis’ ImageMovers and Hanks’ Playtone. It’s produced by Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke, Derek Hogue and Bill Block. Executive producers are Jeremy Johns, Andrew Golov and Thom Zadra. Here stars Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, Kelly Reilly, and Michelle Dockery, along with many others.
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The Long-Awaited Team-Up
It will be the first time in the last three decades that the award-winning trio will work together on a mainstream film. However, Zemeckis has actively worked with Hanks sinceForrest Gump. The duo collaborated onCast Away, which also became a huge success and is included mongTom Hanks’ best performances. They then worked on the animated filmThe Polar Express, plus a maligned version ofPinocchio.
Eric Roth, on the other hand, has had several successful projects sinceForrest Gumpand has scored a total of seven Oscar nominations, the most recent being for adapting Frank Herbert’s novel for Dennis Villeneuve’sDune. Roth also wrote the screenplay for Martin Scorsese’s recent film,Killers of the Flower Moon, which was also a reunion of Hollywood classic A-listers with Scorsese and two of his longtime collaborators, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
