Tom Hanks is in talks to star in an upcoming adaptation of Allen Levi's breakout novel "Theo of Golden". Warner Bros Pictures is also nearing a deal for the film rights to the bestseller. Levi is an American author, singer-songwriter, former attorney, and small-town judge who became a bestselling writer later in life. Born in 1956, Levi authored three books: "Oliviatown" (2003), "The Last Sweet Mile" (2014) and "Theo of Golden" (2023).
"Theo of Golden" was self-published, and through word-of-mouth and the help of Levi's niece Aron Ritchie, it became a sleeper hit. In 2025 it was acquired by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for wider distribution. The book spent three weeks as the number one book on the List of The New York Times number-one books of 2026, and has sold over 3.5 million copies in the US. It has been published in 43 languages and was a No. 1 bestseller in places like the Netherlands, Italy and the UK.
If the deal goes through, Hanks will be playing the title character. Set in the fictional town of Golden, the story follows a man named Theo who arrives and purchases pencil portraits of locals that are displayed in a coffee shop. He returns them to each subject, and these visits reveal stories and relationships, and they lead to Theo to come to terms with tragedy in his past.
Gil Netter, Gary Goetzman and Hanks will produce, and Levi will executive produce. Jesse Ehrman and Sheila Walcott are overseeing the project for Warner Bros. Literary affairs executive Ian Dalrymple is credited with flagging the project to the studio.
Hanks recently finished filming the WWII drama "Greyhound 2", which he also wrote, and is next set to star in "The Comebacker" opposite Callum Turner, which will shoot in early fall.
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