With director Paul Greengrass’ News of the World now playing in select theaters and arriving on PVOD in mid-January, I recently participated in a group interview with Tom Hanks about making his first Western. If you haven’t seen the trailers, News of the World is based on the novel by Paulette Jiles and is set a few years after the end of the Civil War in Texas. The film is about Captain Jefferson Kyle Kid (Hanks), a veteran who goes from town-to-town reading stories from newspapers. While traveling, he meets an abandoned 10-year-old girl named Johanna (Helena Zengel), who was being escorted to Indian Affairs as she had previously been captured and raised among the Kiowa people after her family was slaughtered six years earlier. After trying to deliver the girl to local authorities, he decides to take her under his wing and return her to her only surviving relatives, which is hundreds of miles into the unforgiving wilderness.

During the extended interview, Hanks talked about why its taken him so long to make a Western, his reasons for making News of the World, the way Greengrass’ past experiences as a journalist and documentarian influenced the film, what was it like working with the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, reveals the one scene he fought with Greengrass over and why, and so much more. In addition, Hanks talked about the future of movie theaters.

If you’re a fan of Tom Hanks you’re definitely going to enjoy this interview because all of his answers are sincere and you can tell he really cares about what he is saying. Check it out below.

Tom Hanks:

  • Why did he want to make News of the World?
  • How a gun fight isn’t the way everything is solved in the film.
  • What has taken him so long to make a Western?
  • Does he think movie theaters will survive and will they only be event pictures?
  • How did his work making the Toy Story films help prepare him to play Captain Jefferson Kyle Kid?
  • How did Paul Greengrass’ past experiences as a journalist and documentarian influence the film?
  • Shares a story about fighting with Greengrass over how the scenes of him reading the news should be done.
  • When making the film how aware were they about the similarities to modern times with the divide between people.
  • What was it like working with the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma?
  • What intrigued him the most about playing Captain Jefferson Kyle Kid and what did he want to bring to the character that wasn’t on the page?
News of the World tom hanks
Image via Universal Pictures