Apple TV+ to Debut Tom Hanks' WWII Action Film 'Greyhound' This July Amid Ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic

Apple announced the release date for Greyhound, a World War II Navy movie starring and written by Tom Hanks. The company picked it up for the Apple TV+ streaming service back in May, after Sony Pictures announced it was no longer planning to release the film theatrically on June 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Greyhound will now be available to stream on Apple TV+ on July 10, reports The Wrap.

Sony has been sitting on Greyhound for a long time. It was first scheduled to be released in March 2019. Sony delayed it until May 8, 2020, so the film's release would coincide with the 75th anniversary of V-E Day, which marked the end of World War II in Europe. In early March, Greyhound was rescheduled for June 12, 2020. When the studio reshuffled its entire 2020 slate, Greyhound was taken off the schedule completely. On May 19, Deadline reported Apple TV+ acquired streaming rights for Greyhound.

Hanks wrote Greyhound, which is based on the novel The Good Shepherd by C.S. Forester. It is the first film from Oscar-winner director Aaron Schneider since his critically acclaimed 2009 debut Get Low. Hanks stars as U.S. Navy Commander Ernest Krause, who leads an international convoy of Allied ships across the North Atlantic while being pursued by German U-boats during the early days of the U.S.' involvement in the war. The film gets its title from the radio code for Krause's ship, the destroyer USS Keeling. The rest of the cast features Stephen Graham, Elisabeth Shue, Rob Morgan and Rob Morgan.

Hanks was last seen on the big screen as Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, which earned the beloved actor his first Oscar nomination since Castaway (2001). The actor and his wife, singer Rita Wilson, were among the first Hollywood celebrities to test positive for the coronavirus in March. They were quarantined in Australia, where Hanks was visiting to prepare for work on his next film, an Elvis Presley biopic directed by Baz Luhrmann. Presley will star as Colonel Tom Parker opposite Austin Butler, who was cast as Presley.

Hanks and Wilson recently shared that they donated plasma to UCLA for research into a coronavirus vaccine. The couple is now doing well after recovering. "We are just fine, dandy," Hanks told NPR in April. "We had all of the flu-like symptoms. My wife, Rita, was a little worse off than me. She had a very high temperature. And we were isolated so that we would not give it to anyone else."