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Tom Hanks is known as Hollywood’s Dad due to his penchant for choosing good-guy roles in films. FromSaving Private RyantoSully, the actor has rarely played characters that are grey or completely villainous. So, it was only natural that he got to play the ‘grumpiest man in the world’ in the American remake of the Swedish filmA Man Called Ove.
Remade asA Man Called Otto, the film was an adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s novel and starred Hanks as the eponymous Otto. The film saw a lonely widower having to deal with a new family that moves into his neighborhood and how he connects with them. Hanks revealed why he felt that the story needed to be said for an American audience.
Tom Hanks Revealed Why He Remade A Swedish Film AsA Man Called Otto
Hannes Holm’s Swedish adaptation ofA Man Called Ovewas met with critical acclaim from all around the world. The film was even nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and even for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. It also won several awards at the Swedish Guldbagge Awards.
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ActorTom Hanksreportedly saw the film with his wife Rita Wilson and immediately felt that it would be ideal for an American audience. The film dealt with themes of loneliness and the human need to belong to a community and Hanks reportedly felt that these themes were perfect for the American context.
Hanks revealed in an interview withColliderthat he and Wilson hoped to make the film six years before it was eventually made. He said,
From the moment that we first saw it, we both felt that there was this American, ideal version of it that needed to be brought forward because the human condition requires belonging to a community. And in the United States, it is very easy to become so insular and so alone, and so singular that you might not be able to agree with enough people to belong to a community, particularly when somebody moves across the street that is very different from you.
While their initial thought was to make an original story inspired by the book, Hanks mentioned that they eventually decided to adapt the novel and Swedish film.
Tom Hanks And Rita Wilson Wanted To MakeA Man Called OttoWith Like-Minded Creators
While Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson saw the originalA Man Called Oveat the time of its release in 2016, it took them six years to finally get the remake on screen. Hanks mentioned that their decision to wait and work on the project was clear from the get-go and they had decided to work on it only after getting like-minded creators on board.
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Part of why they decided to do so, Hanks said, was due to the themes of the story and how they wanted it to be explored in the American context. Talking about how universal the themes were, he said to Collider,
There are any number of superheroes, literally from the Comic-Con thing, that experience that same exact guy, how many lone, lone people are so fixed in their ways, and yet it’s not ’til they go out into the greater, bigger world that their life becomes larger than it should be? So, it’s not like you read a script and say, ‘Oh, I want to make this in six months.’ We actually saw this movie six years ago, and we said, ‘We’d like to be able to turn this into a movie if we could find like-minded allies.’ And we did.
The film was directed by Marc Forster, who is best known for directing films likeMonster’s Ball, White Bird, The Kite Runner,andChristopher Robin.
A Man Called Ottois currently available to stream on Netflix.
Nishanth A
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2417
Nishanth A is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on TV shows with over 2,000 articles published. He has been an entertainment journalist for the past two years and a scriptwriter at various corporations before that, working on educational content. With a Communications, English Literature, and Psychology triple major, Nishanth usually covers news and analyses on Star Trek, particularly Strange New Worlds and The Next Generation; Doctor Who, the DCU, and more.A Nolan fan, Nishanth spends his time exploring the filmographies of various directors with an auteurial style or can be found making short movies of his own. He has also contributed as a feature writer for Film Companion, focusing on the South division.
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