Tom Hanks says new movie 'News Of The World' may be 'last' of its kind

Watch: News Of The World trailer

Tom Hanks thinks his latest movie News Of The World could be among the last dramas of its kind to be presented at the cinema.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, studios have been quick to shift movies of a certain type to streaming, avoiding theatrical release altogether.

And while that's undoubtedly due to the pandemic shutting down screens around the world, the Forrest Gump icon is concerned it may be hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

Speaking to Collider, he said: “News Of The World might be the last adult movie about people saying interesting things that’s going to play on a big screen somewhere.

“Because after this, in order to guarantee that people are going to show up again, we’re going to have the Marvel Universe and all sorts of franchise movies.

“And some of those movies are great. You want to see them writ large because actually watching them at home on your couch might diminish them somewhere, somehow in their visual punch.”

News Of The World certainly is not reliant on elaborate CGI setpieces.

It finds Hanks playing an American civil war veteran who travels the US delivering news of world events to those in remote communities.

Read more: Tom Hanks not worried about movie industry changes

He then embarks upon a mission to return a young girl taken by the native Kiowa tribe to her family on a perilous cross-country journey.

Hanks added: “But the sea change that has been brought by COVID-19 has been a slow train coming. I think there’ll be an awful lot of movies that will only be streamed and it will be fine to see them that way because they’re built and made and constructed for somebody’s pretty good widescreen TV at their home.

“There will be other movies that are going to be playing in that window. People will, in fact, I think, flock to them in order to see them on the big screen while they have the chance.”

Hanks is well placed to discuss COVID-19, having contracted the disease in March after arriving in Australia to film Baz Luhrmann's new movie Elvis, in which he plays the role of Elvis Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker.

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Both Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson were treated in hospital in Australia before returning to the US, after which they donated blood for antibody research.

News Of The World will be released in cinemas in the US – though the majority remain closed – on Christmas Day, and will also stream on Netflix.

Watch: Tom Hanks happy to get COVID vaccine