Upcoming Tom Hanks Movies You Need To Know About

Tom Hanks already holds the title of the nicest man in Hollywood, but it's time for him to be declared the town's hardest working actor, too. The affable Hanks has more than 90 acting credits to his name, and he's a prolific producer, as well. Most impressively of all, at the age of 64, the Forrest Gump star is showing no signs of slowing down.

Currently, Hanks has four movies in various stages of production, and two more that he's informally attached to: Disney's live-action Pinocchio and an adaptation of Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts. It's too early to tell if those last two will come to fruition, but the actor's other four projects are either completed, in post-production and filming, or at the very least, formally announced. 

That's good news for movie fans who are looking forward to seeing Hanks take on a variety of roles over the next few years. From an intimate Western about a war veteran shepherding a young woman to safety to an English adaptation of A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, here are all of Hanks' movies that need to be on your radar in the coming months.

Despite most of 2020's biggest movies either shifting their release dates to 2021 or opting for VOD releases, Hanks' emotional Western News of the World is on track for its 2020 Christmas day release in theaters. Directed by Greengrass and based on the novel of the same name by Paulette Jiles, News of the World follows a war veteran, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Hanks), who travels across Texas reading news to the locals shortly after the end of the Civil War.

Jefferson's goal is to spread hope and a sense of connectivity to the far-flung communities out West, but he ends up with a much bigger job on his hands when he finds a 10-year-old girl (Helena Zengel) who is orphaned after the Kiowa tribe members who killed her family and raised her are slain. Reluctantly, the Captain agrees to take the little girl to her last living relatives in Texas, but their journey won't be an easy one as they face dangerous people and the unforgiving terrain of the West along the way.

As you would expect from an epic Western starring Hanks, News of the World is already an Oscars hopeful, thanks in part to its timeliness. Even though the film is set in the post-Civil War era, it is ultimately about a divided America where the threat of a pandemic (Tuberculosis) and a distrust of the news runs rampant. With Hanks' character spreading light in dark times, the movie will almost certainly earn the actor his seventh Oscar nomination.

Hanks is set to follow up News of the World with another epic about crossing Western America with an unlikely companion in the Miguel Sapochnik-directed BIOS. The movie is currently scheduled to be released in theaters on April 21, 2020, and yes, it also sounds like a total tearjerker.

Unlike News of the World, BIOS is set in a dystopian future, where the world has been left a virtual wasteland after a devastating solar event. Hanks plays one of the few survivors, Finch, a robotics engineer who has spent a decade living underground with his dog, Goodyear. But in a twist that's sure to break the hearts of moviegoers everywhere, Finch is suffering from a terminal illness, so he builds a robot, Jeff (Caleb Landry Jones), to care for Goodyear after he dies.

Before Jeff can take on the responsibility of caring for Finch's four-legged best friend, he has to learn about the world. That's how he, Finch, and Goodyear end up on a perilous journey to find beauty in the post-apocalyptic landscape before the ailing man dies and Jeff has no one to teach him about what it means to be human.

Aside from sounding like an utterly heartbreaking sci-fi film, BIOS should be on the radar of Game of Thrones' fans since Sapochnik is known for directing some of the show's biggest episodes, including "Battle of the Bastards" and "The Long Night."

Baz Luhrmann's Elvis Presley biopic gained notoriety after Hanks, one of Hollywood's most beloved actors, contracted COVID-19 during filming in March 2020. Thankfully, the Greyhound star has since recovered, and filming on the movie resumed Sep. 23 in Queensland, Australia, as reported by Deadline.

Not much is known about the big budget Presley movie just yet, but with Luhrmann directing, moviegoers can expect a sweeping ode to the King of Rock. For his part, Hanks is set to play the singer's manager Colonel Tom, with whom Presley had a contentious relationship with, while Austin Butler will step into Presley's blue suede shoes. The movie also stars Olivia DeJonge as Priscella Presley, and Rufus Swell and Maggie Gyllenhaal as the "Jailhouse Rock" singer's parents.

With filming back on track, the movie is set to premiere Nov. 5, 2021.

Back in 2017, the Swedish version of A Man Called Ove nabbed a Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the Oscars, and Hollywood put the wheels in motion on its own adaptation of the acclaimed Backman novel soon after. However, there hasn't been much movement on the project since its initial announcement.

Still, with Hanks attached to star in and produce the film, it seems likely the project will get underway at some point in the near future, if the actor ever finds a break in his busy schedule. For fans of the star, A Man Called Ove offers an opportunity to see Hanks take on a darker role than what he usually goes for.

The titular Ove is a curmudgeonly, suicidal man who leads a lonely life after the death of his wife. It's only when two young girls move in next door that he rediscovers the joy of connecting with people again. (So basically, this movie has the potential to be major Oscar bait for Hanks when and if production finally gets underway.)

With those four projects — and potentially two more — heading to movie theaters in the next two years, moviegoers have plenty of Hanks movies coming their way.