WithNews of the Worldnow playing in select theaters and arriving on PVOD in mid-January, I recently spoke with directorPaul Greengrassabout making his Western withTom Hanks. If you haven’tseen the trailers,News of the Worldis based on the novel byPaulette Jilesand is set a few years after the end of the Civil War in Texas. The film is about Captain Jefferson Kyle Kid (Hanks), a veteran who goes from town-to-town reading stories from newspapers. While traveling, he meets an abandoned 10-year-old girl named Johanna (Helena Zengel), who was being escorted to Indian Affairs as she had previously been captured and raised among the Kiowa people after her family was slaughtered six years earlier. After trying to deliver the girl to local authorities, he decides to take her under his wing and return her to her only surviving relatives, which is hundreds of miles into the unforgiving wilderness.
During the extended interview, Greengrass talked about the obstacles they had to overcome makingNews of the World, the way he collaborates with his editor, deleted scenes, the healing power of storytelling, how your daily rushes are always genius but your first cut makes you extremely nervous. In addition, he talked about why he’s always wanted to make an adaption ofGeorge Orwell’s1984but why it’s such a challenging project to make.
Check out what he had to say below. For more on the film,read Matt Goldberg’s review.
Paul Greengrass:
Here’s the official synopsis forNews of the World:
Five years after the end of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks), a widower and veteran of three wars, now moves from town to town as a non-fiction storyteller, sharing the news of presidents and queens, glorious feuds, devastating catastrophes, and gripping adventures from the far reaches of the globe. In the plains of Texas, he crosses paths with Johanna (Helena Zengel), a 10-year-old taken in by the Kiowa people six years earlier and raised as one of their own. Johanna, hostile to a world she’s never experienced, is being returned to her biological aunt and uncle against her will. Kidd agrees to deliver the child where the law says she belongs. As they travel hundreds of miles into the unforgiving wilderness, the two will face tremendous challenges of both human and natural forces as they search for a place that either can call home.
