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After appearing together in Joe Versus the Volcano, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan look set to reunite in the big screen adaptation of William Saroyan’s classic 1943 novel The Human Comedy. It marks the directorial debut of Ryan and she will start shooting in Virginia next month.

Hanks is closely involved in the project as an executive producer, so the fact that he’s willing to make a cameo in the World War II set coming of age drama perhaps shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.

The novel was adapted by Band of Brothers scribe Erik Jendresen, and he obviously worked with Hanks on that critically acclaimed HBO series. Sam Shepard, Melanie Griffith and Jack Quaid have so far also been confirmed as starring in the movie. Janet Brenner and Laura Ivey are producing.

Set in a small town in California’s San Joaquin Valley in 1942, Ithaca recounts the story of 14-year-old Homer Macauley, a telegraph bike messenger. His older brother has gone to fight in World War II, leaving him to care for his widowed mother, his older sister and his four-year-old brother, Ulysses.

The effects of the war are revealed as Homer delivers messages of love, friendship, pain and death, including one message that alters his own life forever. Tom Hanks is set to play the boy’s father.

It should be very interesting to see how this one comes together, and how Ryan does in the director’s chair. An appearance from Tom Hanks should also help, especially as The Exchange acquired worldwide rights to the project earlier this year and has been shopping it to foreign buyer sever since.

To see some of our favourite 21st Century Coming of Age movies, be sure to click here.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter