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First look and teaser trailer for Tom Hanks movie 'News of the World'

Helena Zengel and Tom Hanks in <i>News of the World</i>. (Universal)
Helena Zengel and Tom Hanks in News of the World. (Universal)

Tom Hanks is the bringer of news in his new movie, helmed by British director Paul Greengrass and set in the old west.

News of the World is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Paulette Jiles, published to much acclaim in 2016.

Hanks plays Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a veteran of the American Civil War who in 1870 travels from town to town telling people of the goings on around the world.

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But while in Texas, he encounters Johanna, a 10-year-old girl who was taken and raised by the Kiowa tribe, and who is to be returned – against her will – to her aunt and uncle in a perilous journey through hundreds of miles of wilderness.

Playing Johanna is the 12-year-old German actress Helena Zengel, with Michael Covino, Fred Hechinger, Neil Sandilands, Thomas Francis Murphy, Mare Winningham, Elizabeth Marvel and Chukwudi Iwuji making up the rest of the cast.

The movie finds Hanks rejoining with Greengrass, after their success with the thriller biopic Captain Phillips in 2013.

It's set for release in the US at Christmas.