Tom Hanks And Meg Ryan Heading To Virginia For Their Next Film

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are setting up shop in Virginia this summer. With Hanks acting as the producer, and Ryan as the director and star, the two have scheduled a casting call for their new film Ithaca.

This is the first time Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks have collaborated in years. Their last outing together was their 1998 successful romcom You’ve Got Mail. Believe it or not but that was fifteen years since Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks have shared the big screen together. Although they won’t share the screen together this time around, they’re still collaborating and that counts for something.

Meg Ryan released a statement about choosing Virginia as their location this summer.

“We’re happily surprised by the cinemagraphic opportunities, the talent of the filmmaking community and the variety of resources at our disposal. We couldn’t be more delighted to be here.”

Film students you know what that means. If you know how to load film or hold a boom properly you should shoot on over to Virginia for the opportunity to work with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Although the casting call took place on June 22, Meg Ryan’s comments allude that they’re also looking for local crew to set up shop for Ithaca.

In addition to working with Meg Ryan, and possibly seeing Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith and Sam Shepard are working along Ryan on screen.

The official synopsis for Meg Ryan’s directorial debut is as follows:

“In a small town in California’s San Joaquin Valley, 14-year-old Homer Macauley is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger anyone has ever seen. His older brother has gone to war, leaving Homer to look after his widowed mother, his older sister and his 4-year-old brother, Ulysses.”

The synopsis continues:

“And so it is that as spring turns to summer, 1942, Homer Macauley delivers messages of love, hope, pain… and death… to the good people of Ithaca. And Homer Macauley will grapple with one message that will change him forever – from a boy into a man.”

The Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe released a statement last Friday when it was announced that Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks were coming to town:

“We couldn’t be happier that Meg Ryan has chosen Virginia as the location for her directorial debut,” Governor McAuliffe said in a statement. “We are excited to have the opportunity to work with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks on this film about an important time in American history.”

It’s believed that Meg Ryan will shoot the film in July and August in Richmond and Petersburg.

[Image via Warner Bros]