Tom Hanks Will Make His Wes Anderson Debut In A Small Role In His Next Movie

A lot of great actors have graced the movies of Wes Anderson. But one of the bigger ones to elude him so far is Tom Hanks. They’d make a great pair: Hanks, like a number of W. Anderson regulars, has a comedy foundation; he was never an SNL cast member, but he has hosted the show a whopping 10 times. That will change soon: As per The Hollywood Reporter, Hanks has joined the no doubt sprawling cast of whatever his next movie will be after his still-yet-to-be-released opus The French Dispatch.

Mind you, he probably won’t be the lead. A source told THR they can’t confirm the size of the role, but it will probably be “small and could be cameo-like in nature.” Also unknown at this time are any details about the plot, though we know some of the cast — Adrien Brody, Bill Murray, and Tilda Swinton, all part of Anderson’s stable — and a shooting location: Spain.

Meanwhile, Anderson’s Tom Hanks-less The French Dispatch, which in a better timeline would have come out last fall, is now scheduled to be released on October 22. It played the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month.

For Hanks, this will likely be the most stylized auteur he’s worked with since he starred in the Coen brothers’ remake of The Ladykillers. He fit into the Coens’ world like a glove, so one imagines he’ll acquit himself just fine with the guy who made a stop-motion movie about endangered mutts. And lord knows he loves to do comedy for a change.