And yet somehow it’s not titled There’s A Good Boy.
Apple has picked up another film featuring Tom Hanks for its streaming platform. Originally titled Bios, the film was slated for an October 2020 release, only to get shuffled off the release calendar because of COVID-19. Now, Apple has snapped up the film, which it plans to release later this year under the title Finch.
Universal first announced the film back in 2018, describing it as a film about a lonely, ailing inventor who builds a robot named Jeff (played by Caleb Landry Jones) to look after his pet dog after he inevitably dies — and as they cross the country, he has to teach it how to be a good pet owner. Also this is all in a post-apocalyptic setting.
The film also stars Samira Wiley (The Handmaid’s Tale), Laura Harrier (Spider-Man: Homecoming), and Skeet Ulrich (Riverdale, Jericho). It looks like it has all the ingredients for a heartbreaking film.
The film was directed by Game of Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik and stars Hanks as Finch. Universal had moved the film back to April 16th, but in January, decided to move the film back even further to August 13th. Now, it looks like the studio has opted to throw in the towel and simply release the film to streaming.
Last year, Apple picked up Tom Hanks World War II film Greyhound amidst the closures prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been slowly building out its own theatrical catalog of original content with movies like Cherry and documentaries like The World’s A Little Blurry, as well as original shows like Ted Lasso, For All Mankind, and the upcoming Foundation.
Apple hasn’t set a date for the film, but says that it’s expected to debut on the platform later this year.
A local millionaire was single with 4-5 golden retrievers. He set up his will so that his dogs’ caretaker stayed in his home as long as the dogs lived, then the remainder of his money went to the state veterinary program for research into the health issues around goldens. And, yes, he died, and about 10 years later all his beloved goldens had passed, and the money went where it was meant to go. If I had that much money and a living pet, he would be my role model.
But Tom Hanks in this movie sounds like he rules, too.
Unless it has some kind of built-in obsolescence, a robot’s going to live a lot longer than a dog. What’s the robot supposed to do after the dog dies? This sounds like solving a problem by creating a whole new problem.
@2
Obviously the robot finds a new dog to look after. Just like a human would.
@2 and 3
Eventually leading to the robot arguing with the other household appliances over how many dogs they can really afford to keep
… originally scheduled to be released… pushed back… pushed back again… dropped by distributor.. picked up by a different distributor with no streaming release date…
Woof.
Good Grief, if this film handles the basic hook with any kind of finesse we’ll be torn between Sad Tears, Happy Tears and outright heartbreak throughout – in other words this sounds like a winner, though that title could use some work.
Perhaps F1DO? (Actually GOOD BOY, as suggested above, has a ring to it – given this seems to be something of a spin on the old Pinocchio concept).
“A Bot And His Dog”, I guess.
Since so far I haven’t conceived a twist on “The Road” where, on top of other post-apocalyptic privations, you have to pick up after the dog. The nearest I have is “Single Use Plastic”, which we know will cause the apocalypse if something else doesn’t get us first.
…”The Littlest Robo”?
“Where Silence Has Leash”?
“Has It Lead To This?”
“Last Humane”?
“After Jack London”?
Wow, gosh, I completely overlooked that the robot is named Jeff.
Many users take titles as nominative determinism, just expecting frivolous fun.