Beloved Children’s Entertainer Mr. Rogers Was Guided By God

Tom Hanks will Star as Fred Rogers in Upcoming Movie

DREAMBIRD is licensed under CC BY 2.0
DREAMBIRD is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The Fred Rogers movie, starring Tom Hanks, is slated for an October 2019 release.

Reaction was positive when Sony Pictures officially released its first still photograph of Hollywood superstar and all around nice man Tom Hanks suitably dressed up as Fred Rogers for his upcoming long-titled movie It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood." Marielle Heller of Can You Ever Forgive Me? has directed the film. .

Tom Hanks will Star as Fred Rogers in Upcoming Movie[/tweetthis]

Rogers hosted Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, the long-running and wildly popular show aimed squarely at children. The name of the current film has been taken from the show's theme song which started with the lines "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood." The film is not the first of its kind. This offering by Sony Pictures' is beaten by a documentary titled Won't You Be My Neighbor? released in 2018. The latter set an extremely high standard for any subsequent Mister Rogers movies. The documentary offers an intimate window into a man who can be only be described as unusual. He did not shy away from using his talent for communication and to use his sensitivity to make children feel happy and safe. He spoke through the television screen to them, making them feel loved and much valued.

Mr. Rogers, in real life, was an officially ordained Presbyterian minister. He was open when it came to his Christian convictions and how they motivated him in his work.  His mission, according to himself, was to create television programs, especially for children. The content was nourishing and helped to guide children using messages sourced from Christian ethics. Mr. Rogers never promoted dogmatic views. He spoke at length about being love and kind to one and all.

Many have high expectations from the “It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” film. The reason is Marielle Heller, the director, herself. She has made a sparkling career out of making superbly crafted small movies like Can You Ever Forgive Me? starring Melissa McCarthy and the acclaimed Diary of a Teenage Girl in 2015. It helps that the film has Harpster and Fitzerman-Blue as scriptwriters. The two already made their mark when they did a stellar job on Transparent, an original series aired on Amazon Prime.

The screenplay was by Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue. The Rogers biopic is being produced by Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub owned Big Beach Films. The list of producers includes Youree Henley along with Leah Holzer of Big Beach.

Resources

Follow the Conversation on Twitter