A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood Trailer: Tom Hanks Shows Mister Rogers Is America’s Greatest Superhero

You may actually feel your cynical heart melting as you watch the official trailer for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Tom Hanks plays Mister Rogers — which couldn’t be more perfect casting — for this very sweet and earnest-seeming film. It’s based on the true story of the real-life friendship between Mister Rogers TV icon Fred Rogers and jaded magazine writer Tom Junod (Matthew Rhys). The jaded writer overcomes his skepticism and learns about empathy and kindness. Basically, his Grinch heart grows three sizes. Watch the trailer:

Do you feel that warm glow? I wonder if Oscar voters will feel it too. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood now has a release date of November 22, 2019, which is just in time for families to watch the movie around Thanksgiving. It’s also perfect timing for Oscar season, so don’t be surprised if Tom Hanks’ name comes up yet again for awards consideration.

A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood was previously scheduled to be released on October 18, but somewhere along the way the Sony/TriStar Powers That Be wisely decided to move it to Thanksgiving. It’s wholesome content.

This drama follows 2018’s Fred Rogers documentary film Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, which became the highest-grossing biographical documentary of all-time.

Director Marielle Heller talked to EW about making A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which she said isn’t a straightforward Fred Rogers biopic, and actually she doesn’t consider it a biopic at all. As much as it seems like Tom Hanks is a real Mister Rogers himself, Heller said she had to work with Hanks to rein in his natural big energy:

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood hero Fred Rogers died in 2003 at age 74, which was far too soon to lose him.

Sadly, a tragedy was associated with the making of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. A crew member fell from a balcony on set, after suffering a medical emergency, and he later died. That was really the only piece of news that came out while the film was being made, and it’s such a shocking contrast to the rest of the positive spirit.