Tom Hanks further cemented his reputation as Hollywood’s Nicest Guy ™ by stopping a Q&A for his own movie to sing the praises of another.
The location was the famously chummy Telluride Film Festival, where – as with the Venice fest just before it – the hot ticket was La La Land, the sumptuous new musical from writer/director Damien Chazelle, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Also playing at the fest is Sully, the Clint Eastwood drama featuring Hanks as pilot Chesley Sullenberger. But at the post-movie Q&A for Sully, the actor/producer used the Chazelle film to illustrate the value of “something you have never seen before.”
“When you see something that is brand new, that you can’t imagine, and you think ‘well thank God this landed’, because I think a movie like La La Land would be anathema to studios,” Hanks explained. “This is not a movie that falls into some sort of trend. I think it is going to be a test of the broader national audience, because it has none of the things that major studios want. Pre-Awareness is a big thing they want, which is why a lot of remakes are going on. [La La] is not a sequel, nobody knows who the characters are…But if the audience doesn’t go and embrace something as wonderful as this then we are all doomed.”
Hanks’s impromptu rave review was first noted by Pete Hammond at Deadline, who reported, “The unexpected plug for La La Land was sure to upset Warner Bros, distributor of Sully, Hanks quipped in his inimitable joking manner.” You know that Tom Hanks – all wacky hijinks and zany shenanigans!