Several book-to-screen adaptations have postponed their theatrical releases in recent weeks, including, most recently, Dune. A few are still slated to hit theaters before the end of the year, however, including Death on the Nile, the Kenneth Branagh-directed film of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit, which has a Dec. 18 release date. A new trailer now confirms that the film News of the World, based on the Kirkus-starred 2016 historical novel by Paulette Jiles and starring Tom Hanks, is still scheduled for a Dec. 25 theatrical premiere.
In the novel, which was a National Book Award finalist, a 70-year-old military veteran, Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd, has a job that involves traveling around Texas and giving public readings from the newspaper; it’s 1870, and his audiences don’t have easy access to information about current events. His life changes when he’s asked to transport a 10-year-old girl 400 miles to reunite her with her family; Kiowa warriors killed her parents four years earlier and she’d been living with a Kiowa family ever since. Over the course of the trip, the pair slowly bond as they face various dangers, including a group of violent cowboys. Kirkus’ reviewer called the book “lyrical and affecting,” noting that it “succeeds in skirting clichés through its empathy and through the depth of its major characters.”
Novelist Luke Davies, who was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay for the 2016 film Lion, adapted News of the World for the screen, and Paul Greengrass, who previously worked with Hanks on the 2013 film Captain Phillips, is directing. Hanks, a multiple Oscar winner, recently directed and starred in Greyhound, a film version of C.S. Forester’s 1955 war novel The Good Shepherd.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
