“Here”: A new movie release reuniting Tom Hanks and Robin Wright

Tom Hanks and Robin Wright star in a tale of love, loss, laughter and life, all of which happen right Here

Reuniting the director, writer and stars of Forrest Gump, Here is an original film about multiple families and a special place they inhabit. The story travels through generations, capturing the most relatable of human experiences. Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Castaway, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Contact, Back to the Future) directs from a screenplay by Eric Roth (Forrest Gump, Killers of the Flower Moon, Dune, A Star is Born) and him. Told much in the style of the acclaimed graphic novel by Richard McGuire on which it is based, Tom Hanks and Robin Wright star in a tale of love, loss, laughter and life, all of which happen right Here.

The setting is a character in itself. As the story weaves in and out of timelines and human
timelines and human actions, the place influences and is influenced by the people who live there. For Richard, the setting represents family and comfort, for Margaret, the setting reflects her feelings of being stuck there and not being able to pursue her and can’t pursue her dreams. “If these walls could talk…”, the director gives new life to this idea, exploring what would happen if these walls could see or talk to these walls. A century of life in an American living room is the story.

At the center of the film’s mosaic of stories is the relationship between Richard Young, played by Hanks, and his wife, Margaret, played by Robin Wright. “Richard and Margaret are brought together because they fall in love,” says Zemeckis. “They go through a lot of the trials and tribulations that life throws at you, but they really do love each other. It’s that love that keeps them together through all the life issues they have to deal with.”

Richard dreams of being an artist, but when he becomes a teenage father, he feels pressured to create a stable life for himself instead of pursuing his passion. “Richard grows up in a house where the threat of money, the threat of not having money, is the lifeblood of what goes on,” says Hanks. “His parents grew up in a very volatile, dangerous kind of daily existence. That’s not the case for the generation that was born after World War II.” That generational divide between Al and Richard has given Hanks a personal connection to Richard’s character. “I was always forced through this prism of being worried about money, terrorized about money,” he says. “That’s the difference between a happy-go-lucky, joy-filled life and one of constant burden.”

One of the director’s monitors showed the actors at their current age and the other showed them in their
and the other showed them in their 20s, in real time. Every time Zemeckis said “cut”, he and the team
(including the actors) would come together and assess whether the age of the characters. Instead of traditional cuts within the film, they used graphic novel-style “panels” to move the audience from scene to scene. This is something groundbreaking in film making and presented significant challenges, as it meant that no moment of the film could be finished before each panel of that scene.

Working together, the director and actors used a variety of creative to realise the artistic vision and seamlessly tell a story that spans generations. Zemeckis is known for groundbreaking films, but HERE is his most innovative film to date. While the story focuses on Hanks & Wright’s characters, the film is a cinematic journey through time where all scenes are connected and show the cycle of life.

Adapted from Richard McGuire’s acclaimed graphic novel, Here tells the story of the generations of people who live out their lives in one spot on Earth. Stretching from prehistory all the way to the present day, the film is an odyssey of all the love and loss that can unfold in a single place. “Here is almost a time travel movie,” says producer Jack Rapke. “Time is moving, but the space we’re in is constant. Styles change, couches get threadbare, new people come in and change everything, but the geometry and geography of that room never changes. There’s a blend of very different storylines about life lived to its fullest, or perhaps lives that weren’t quite lived to their fullest.”

For Tom Hanks, Here is about the countless choices and crossroads that make up a human life. “Everybody always says, ‘oh, life’s too short,’” Hanks says. “No, it’s not! Life is long! It goes on for a really long time, and with that comes a constant refocusing of reference points. Everything you give up is based on one moment. Everything that you say out of anger or love is always based on this one individual moment, and eventually those individual moments become this kind of primordial soup of where you came from. And the only thing you can be is who you are at the next moment that comes along.”

“We all know we’re not going to be here forever,” says Oscar®-winning writer Eric Roth. “But while we’re here, what are the moments that matter? As we picked and chose what we were going to take from the book, we thought about all the things in life that seem fleeting at the time, but in retrospect, are actually everything to us.”

Wright was also delighted at the opportunity to work with the Forrest Gump team again. “When Bob reached out to me about this project, I said, ‘Bob, I would do anything with all of you again,’” Wright says. “It felt like getting the band back together. Working with people you’re compatible with, and you have a creative gel flowing—there’s nothing like that. Bob knows how I work. He knows how Tom works. I know how Bob’s mind works. I know what he wants out of a scene, and I understand his notes because we’ve been here before.”

Hanks is happy to have a chance to work with Wright again, after years of scheduling conflicts and other missed opportunities. “Robin is always the first person I think of to be in a movie with,” he says. “It’s just that she’s always been too busy or it hasn’t worked out.”