Fred Rogers was the beloved host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on public television
from the mid-1960s until 2001.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood features the beloved Tom Hanks donning that iconic
red cardigan.
Here's everything you need to know.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood stars Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers, a minister, puppeteer,
advocate of kindness, gentle TV host, and role model to multiple generations of Americans.
As such a prominent figure who loomed large in the emotional development of millions - and
appeared on TV every day for decades - it makes sense that Hollywood would want to make
a big-budget movie starring an Oscar-winning actor.
But this is just not that movie.
It isn't "The Mister Rogers Story," or a biopic like the surreal Elton John biography Rocketman
or the rise-of-Dick-Cheney story Vice.
It's more about the impact of Mister Rogers on others, particularly a jaded and cynical
journalist named Lloyd Vogel and how his interactions with the TV host warm his sometimes icy heart.
However, the movie is also highly fictionalized, as Vogel is based on Tom Junod, who wrote
the 1998 Esquire article "Can You Say ... Hero?" that inspired the screenplay.
While Fred Rogers espoused kindness and understanding in the face of an often cruel and unfeeling
world, the movie about the man couldn't escape the shocking sadness that the universe can
dish out.
James Emswiller, an Emmy-winning sound mixer for his work on the HBO movie Bessie, took
a cigarette break during the October 2018 filming of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, retreating to a balcony outside of an apartment building.
People in the area reported hearing a large crash and discovered Emswiller, who'd suffered
a two-story fall.
He was rushed to nearby hospital UPMC Mercy and was initially listened in serious condition
before his condition worsened in the hours after the accident.
Emswiller, who also worked on movies like The Fault in Our Stars and Marvel's The Avengers,
passed away as a result of the fall at the age of 61.
There's a reason why the journalist played in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood isn't
actually a real person.
It's because he's a fictionalized composite of several people.
Back in 2006, writer Tim Madigan published I'm Proud of You: My Friendship with Fred
Rogers, a memoir of his relationship with the late children's TV host, particularly
how Rogers helped Madigan reconnect with his estranged father.
That became the basis for a screenplay, which Big Beach Films optioned in 2013, with Little
Miss Sunshine team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris signing on to direct.
The script bounced around Hollywood for years, with revisions to both content and title,
but it retained the element of Mister Rogers helping a writer make amends with his father,
along with incorporating elements from Tom Junod's Esquire article.
While the writers worked out the details of the script, producers worked on landing the
right actor to play Mister Rogers.
They pursued Tom Hanks for years, who turned down the role multiple times according to
director Marielle Heller.
"Where's Mr. Rogers.
Peekaboo!"
Wouldn't just about everyone consider themselves a huge fan of Fred Rogers, or at least his
gentle PBS series?
Well, Tom Hanks didn't count himself among the loyal Rogers rank-and-file until very
recently.
As a child, he preferred sillier fare than what Rogers offered.
"I think I was 11 when he first went on the air, and it was just this odd, black and white
show with puppets with mouths that didn't move.
I didn't get it."
That all changed just a couple years before he took on the gig of playing Mister Rogers,
when a friend emailed him a 1981 clip of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, in which Rogers converses
with Jeffrey Erlanger, a little boy who required a wheelchair, and then sings "It's You I Like"
with him.
"I'm so glad you came today.
Thanks.
Thank you."
Hanks explained:
"Fred is just so wonderfully gentle and present [with] someone who normally would make [most
people] feel uncomfortable.
[...] It made me bawl my eyes out.
It was just so [amazing].
It’s one of the reasons why I’m in the movie."
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is a movie about emotions - after all, it was the life's
work of Fred Rogers to tell children that it was okay to feel their feelings.
That emotional realism resonates from a framework of realism - the movie diligently and accurately
recreates Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
The film's scenes of Rogers' show were produced in the same studio in Pittsburgh where the
real show was made for more than 30 years.
Director Marielle Heller even brought in crew from the real show to stage the re-creation,
including the set decorator and camera operator, who used authentic cameras of yesteryear to
capture Tom Hanks as Mister Rogers.
Heller told Entertainment Weekly:
"We lit it with the actual lights that had lit Mister Rogers.
Everything about it feels identical in a way that's tangible."
On top of recreating the actual set from the original series, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
features many brief appearances from some of the people who made Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
such a special thing.
"Speedy delivery returns.
Yes, good."
Sadly, Mister Rogers himself, Fred Rogers, died at age 74 in 2003, so he does not appear
in the film, but his wife of 50 years, pianist Joanne Rogers, pops up for a moment.
Fred Rogers' close associate Bill Isler, CEO of The Fred Rogers Company, has a cameo, too.
Longtime Mister Rogers' Neighborhood cast member David Newell - Speedy Express delivery
man Mr. McFeely - also makes an appearance.
In other words, most of the gang is here to help this brand new neighborhood feel like
an old home.
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