Tom Hanks & Forrest Gump Director’s Fifth Movie Collaboration Gets Release Date

Summary

• Here
  by Robert Zemeckis & Tom Hanks gets a release date after 2 years in the making, being set for a November 2024 release.
• The movie will mark Zemeckis and Hanks’ fifth collaboration after
  Forrest Gump, Cast Away, The Polar Express
  and
  Pinocchio
  .
• Despite the poorer receptions to their recent collaborations,
  Here
  ‘s intimate, smaller-scale storytelling could be their best project in decades.

Over two years after the project was first announced to be in development, Here has finally landed a release date. Adapted from Richard McGuire’s graphic novel of the same name, the movie marks the fifth collaboration between Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis, which first began with the former’s second Oscar-winning role in the 1995 classic Forrest Gump. In addition to its director and lead, the movie will serve as a Forrest Gump reunion with Robin Wright and Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth.

Variety has now brought word that Here has scored a release date. The era-spanning drama is slated to make its premiere in Los Angeles and New York on November 15, followed by a limited theatrical release on November 22 and wide release on November 27. The movie will face some hefty competition at the box office as it faces off against Dwayne Johnson’s Red One, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 and both Moana 2 and Wicked releasing the following week.

Will Here Redeem Zemeckis & Hanks’ 2022 Flop?

While the teaming of Zemeckis and Hanks may have once sounded like a recipe for success, the duo have struggled to reclaim the same spark they found in their earlier pairings. Their initial reunion with Cast Away was not the same runaway success as Forrest Gump, but was still deemed a smash hit upon release. The Polar Express was initially an underperformer, but became a success through its cult following and later re-releases, but their 2022 Pinocchio live-action remake was a certified flop. Check out how the duo’s previous projects compare on Rotten Tomatoes and at the box office:

Despite these prior struggles, though, there are a variety of reasons why Here could put Zemeckis and Hanks’ collaboration history back on the positive track. The first is that the story, which is said to take place solely in one room and explore the stories of its inhabitants from the past to the future, is a far more intimate character exploration than a grand spectacle on the scale of The Polar Express or Pinocchio. It was this kind of storytelling that made their collaborations so compelling to watch in the first place.

The other major factor that could lead to Here becoming a success is Zemeckis reuniting with Roth to pen the script for the movie. Serving as their first collaboration in 30 years, the Oscar winner has been on a hot streak, having co-written Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, with the sci-fi epic netting him his seventh Oscar nod and the 2023 crime epic garnering him his fifth Golden Globe nomination. With this much talent, Here could very well be the best Zemeckis and Hanks project since Forrest Gump.

Source: Variety