RIDING HIGH

Hollywood star Tom Hanks saddles up for his first ever western in Netflix adventure News of the World

- Tom Hank

NEW DRAMA

News of the World From Wednesday 10 February, Netflix

In a career stretching back 40 years, Tom Hanks has pretty much appeared in every kind of movie – from rom-com Sleepless in Seattle and war film Saving Private Ryan to mystery thriller The Da Vinci Code and period drama Saving Mr. Banks.

But the two-time Oscar-winner had never starred in a western before signing up for new Netflix movie News of the World.

‘People always said to me, “How come you haven’t made a western?” but there’s no reason to make a western just because you get to wear comfortable clothes and a hat,’ explains Hanks, 64. ‘It has to be bigger than just the genre – and I was fascinated by the story told in News of the World.’

Set in Texas in 1870, five years after the bloody American Civil War, the movie features Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kidd, a former Confederate soldier who now makes a living traveling from town to town, reading stories from newspapers to isolated, news-starved crowds that pay a dime ahead for the chance to listen.

‘Kidd is like the original podcaster – he wants to inform and enlighten people,’ says Hanks.