Marielle Heller's (CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME) upcoming drama centered around beloved television icon Fred Rogers wrapped up production more than a month ago, and now Sony Pictures have finally announced the official title for the film. Seeing as how the recent Mister Rogers documentary already snagged WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?, the Sony film has elected to go for another line of the Mister Roger's Neighborhood theme-song: A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
There you have it. A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD stars Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers (really, who else could play him?) and Matthew Rhys as Lloyd Vogel, a cynical journalist who begrudgingly accepts an assignment to write a profile piece on the beloved icon and finds his perspective on life transformed. My heart is ready to be warmed beyond belief. "It’s a story for our times, a story about kindness and family connection and trying to tap into our better self. God knows we need that right now!" director Marielle Heller told Entertainment Weekly in March. "In the research for the movie, the writers found that more people than they could possibly count credited Mr. Rogers with changing their lives…. [It’s about] one man who’s in a critical point in his life — becoming a new father, having issues with his own father — and meeting Mr. Rogers to write a piece about him, thinking it’s going to be a bit of a puff piece, but it ends up changing his entire life." Heller also made a note of saying that the film is not a biopic.
[This] movie is…. not a biopic. I disliked that when it got announced it was characterized as such. It’s really not. It’s a movie that’s largely focused on a reporter and [Mr. Rogers’] relationship to his life, and how [the reporter’s] whole world changes when coming in contact with Fred Rogers.
A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD is set for an October 18, 2019 release.