#Apple TV+ sets July 10 premiere for Tom Hanks’ film ‘Greyhound’

By Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline

Apple has set a July 10 release date for “Greyhound,” the World War II drama that stars Tom Hanks, who wrote the script from C.S. Foreste’s novel “The Good Shepherd.” The film will make its global premiere exclusively on streaming service Apple TV  in more than 100 countries.

“Greyhound” was slated to be released theatrically by Sony Pictures, but Deadline revealed on May 19 that the uncertainty over the COVID-19 theater closures prompted a worldwide rights deal in what became Apple’s biggest investment in a feature film, at around $70 million. The pic is a Playtone Production from Sony Pictures/Stage Six Films. Watch the new trailer below.

Hanks stars as a longtime Navy veteran who, as a first-time captain, is tasked with protecting a convoy of 37 ships carrying thousands of soldiers and much-needed supplies across the treacherous waters of the Atlantic during WWII. For five days with no air cover, the captain and his small force of three escort ships must make their way through an area of the ocean known as “the Black Pit,” battling Nazi U-boats while protecting their invaluable ships and soldiers.

The Aaron Schneider-directed “Greyhound” is inspired by events during the Battle of the Atlantic, which took place in the earliest months of America’s alliance with Great Britain and the Allied Forces. Stephen Graham, Rob Morgan and Elisabeth Shue star alongside Hanks.

The pic is produced by Gary Goetzman.

“Greyhound” marks the second partnership with Playtone and Apple, following a straight-to-series order for another WWII story, “Masters of the Air.” The series is executive produced by Steven Spielberg, Hanks and Goetzman. The upcoming international limited series is the first project greenlit by Apple, with Apple serving as the studio. The series is being written by “Band of Brothers” alumnus John Orloff, who is also a co-executive producer along with another “Band of Brothers” alum, Graham Yost.

It tops an Apple TV film slate that includes the Bryce Dallas Howard-directed documentary “Dads”; the Sofia Coppola-directed comedy “On the Rocks,” with Bill Murray and Rashida Jones; and the docu “Boys State,” which Apple acquired at Sundance.