Tom Hanks to film in Pittsburgh
A new film starring Tom Hanks as children’s television icon Fred Rogers is lining up to film in Pittsburgh in the autumn.
By Nia Daniels 11 Jul 2018
A new film starring Tom Hanks as children’s television icon Fred Rogers is lining up to film in Pittsburgh in the autumn.
Sony has confirmed that shooting on You Are My Friend will take place in and around the Pennsylvanian city, according to a report from the Pittsburgh Business Times.
It says the project has been allocated a film tax credit of $10.9m by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
The state offers a 25% tax credit to projects that spend at least 60% of their total production budget in the region with an annual total cap of $60m.
You Are My Friend will be directed by Marielle Heller, and explores how reporter Tom Junod's life changed when he wrote a magazine profile on the hugely popular TV personality and ordained minister Rogers, whose pre-school TV series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood ran from 1968-2001.
Dawn Keezer of the Pittsburgh Film Office told NEXT Pittsburgh that her office had been discussing the project with Sony for six months. The city will be largely doubling for New York where Junod did most of his interviews with Rogers. Keezer said: “We do New York better than New York does. We can shut down the streets … it’s a lot easier to film here.”
Other recent high-profile projects to have used Pittsburgh as a location backdrop include period feature Fences, directed by Denzel Washington, and 1970s-set TV crime drama Mindhunter.
Photo via Getty Images/Corbis Entertainment/Stephane Cardinale - Corbis.
Dawn Keezer of the Pittsburgh Film Office told NEXT Pittsburgh that her office had been discussing the project with Sony for six months. The city will be largely doubling for New York where Junod did most of his interviews with Rogers. Keezer said: “We do New York better than New York does. We can shut down the streets … it’s a lot easier to film here.”
Other recent high-profile projects to have used Pittsburgh as a location backdrop include period feature Fences, directed by Denzel Washington, and 1970s-set TV crime drama Mindhunter.
Photo via Getty Images/Corbis Entertainment/Stephane Cardinale - Corbis.
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