Tom Hanks WWII Movie Greyhound Pulled From Theaters, Acquired By Apple TV+

Well, there goes your Dad’s plan for a triumphant return to the movie theater on Father’s Day Weekend. The Tom Hanks WWII drama Greyhound, one of the few films that had been holding on to a June or July release date, has been dropped from the schedule, but the big news is the unexpected place it will make port: Apple TV+. It’s the biggest Apple film acquisition so far, announcing the service’s intentions to compete alongside big players like Netflix, Amazon and Disney+.

The film had been scheduled for a June 19 release via Sony Pictures, before the distributor unsurprisingly got cold feet. It’s impossible to say how many cinemas might be operating in the U.S. by that point, but Sony intended a wide release for Greyhound and must have figured that they should cut bait and let a streamer handle the film’s release instead. Deadline is reporting that a bidding war ensued, and that Apple may have paid around $70 million for the film. That’s quite the investment for what the streamer must consider a cornerstone piece of content.

The beloved Tom Hanks both wrote and stars in Greyhound, taking on the role of George Krause, a U.S. naval officer in command of a destroyer called Greyhound. In the midst of the Battle of the Atlantic, he runs up against a wolfpack of seemingly unbeatable German U-boats, and must do various brave, soldiery things to carry the day. It’s a formula you know by heart, but you also know that it’s what the dads in attendance want to see. As Deadline puts it, “Along with the enemy, Krause fights his self-doubts and personal demons to prove he belongs.” Which is to say, it’s like every film about a WWII officer ever made.

Greyhound was written by Hanks and directed by Aaron Schneider. It’s still scheduled for that June 19 release, despite the change of venue—one has to wonder how many additional subscribers this might drive in the direction of Apple TV+, whose original series we recently ranked. It also puts the pressure right back on Christopher Nolan’s Tenet to be the first big movie to possibly open in theaters on July 17, although this is looking increasingly unlikely as well.

In the meantime, you can check out the final Greyhound trailer below.