Oh, and it's a war movie. So your dad is on board for sure.
Greyhound follows Captain Ernest Krause (Hanks), who takes command of the USS Keeling and is tasked with leading a convoy of 37 Allied vessels across the North Atlantic ocean. In addition to evading German U-boats, Krause is also forced to reckon with his own inner conflicts, having only received his command out of wartime necessity. As much of the story's tension comes from the character's self-doubt and personal demons as it does from naval battles. The cast also includes Stephen Graham ( The Irishman , Public Enemies ), Elisabeth Shue ( The Boys , Battle of the Sexes ), and Rob Morgan (Mudbound, This Is Us).
In addition to playing the lead role, Hanks actually wrote the screenplay for the movie; he adapted the script from The Good Shepherd, a 1955 novel by C.S. Forester , an author best known for creating the character of Horatio Hornblower.
"At about Page 3, I realized that this was an entire story told through the mental perspective of its protagonist," Hanks said of the novel in a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle . "Ernie Krause is not the captain that you would anticipate being in charge of the safety of all these ships. Not long after that, I had a very, very strong mental image of the DNA of the story, and how it could possibly be a screenplay... When I lived in Alameda, when I was a young kid and the Vietnam War was going on, I'm gonna say more than half of my classmates had their fathers in the Navy."
Hanks' previous screenwriting credits include the acclaimed 1996 musical That Thing You Do! and the 2011 romantic comedy Larry Crowne, both of which he also directed and starred in. But he never could have anticipated when writing Greyhound that its themes would be even more relevant to a modern audience by the time the film was released. He and his wife, Rita Wilson, were two of the first high-profile figures to test positive for coronavirus earlier this year. Hanks has found an even greater sense of connection with the script in recent months, and believes that there are parallels between what people faced in World War II, and the dangers we face now in the pandemic.
"There was a sensibility that permeated all of society, which was: do your part, we're all in this together," he told TODAY . "Doing your part meant there was a tiny amount of stuff you could do to aid the ongoing effort that had no sign of its conclusion. World War II went on for an awfully long time, a big portion of everybody's lives. They didn't know it was going to come to an end, and we don't know what's going to happen with COVID-19. The idea of doing one's part, though, should be so simple."
Greyhound is now streaming on Apple TV+.