If all goes well, Hanks will make a cameo in the film adaptation of William Saroyan’s classic 1943 novel “The Human Comedy,” which also marks the directorial debut of Meg Ryan, said the Hollywood Reporter.
Ryan, 52, will start shooting for the film next month in Virginia. The actor is also in talks to executive produce the film. Hanks, 57, and Ryan gave hits like “Joe Versus the Volcano,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail.”
Erik Jendresen has adapted the story, which is set in a small town in California’s San Joaquin Valley in 1942. The film recounts the story of 14-year-old Homer Macauley, a telegraph bike messenger. His elder brother has gone to fight in World War II, leaving him to care for his widowed mother, his older sister and his four-year-old brother, Ulysses.
The effects of the war are revealed as Homer delivers messages of love, friendship, pain and death, including one message that alters his own life forever. Hanks would play the boy’s father.