Tom Hanks Goes West to Help a Young Girl Find Her Family in News of the World Trailer

Tom Hanks' latest film is taking him back in time and out West.

The new trailer for the 64-year-old actor's upcoming film, News of the World, dropped on Tuesday.

Directed by Paul Greengrass and based on a 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles, the film follows Hanks' Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd as he travels through the frontier to help return a young 10-year-old girl Johanna, played by Helena Zengel, to her biological family after she was taken in by the Kiowa people six years earlier and raised as one of their own.

The director previously worked with Hanks on 2013’s Captain Phillips.

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News of the World

In the opening of the trailer, Jefferson sits beside Johanna, 12, as she looks upon his collection of newspapers that he has obtained throughout his travels.

"See all those words? Put them all together and you have a story," he says before Johanna — whose character does not speak English — repeats "story," causing him to smile adoringly at her.

Then, as the trailer flashes before a western scene, Hanks' character is asked "Captain, why are you doing this?" to which he responds, "Little girl is lost. I'm returning her to her surviving family."

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In the next scene, Johanna jumps on a horse riding beside Jefferson's carriage, reiterating the word "horse" after he says it, before then referring to Jefferson as "captain."

"Make no mistake," Jefferson says as he points to himself, "Captain."

The clip then shows Hanks as Jefferson in various scenes attempting to protect the child as they make their way back to her original home.

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According to Vanity Fair, Hanks' character's goal in the film is to "bring people together and expand their perspective of the world" through his one-man show about true stories from around the world.

"When the fabric of society is in tatters, you’ve got a character in Kidd, who in his lonely, singular, small way is a thread who connects one community to another,” director Greengrass told the publication.

He adds of the film, which takes place in 1870: "Even though it’s set then, it’s a film about our times."

"Neighbors and families and communities were in stark and often violent conflict with each other, and Americans needed to decide who they were as Americans."

News of the World opens this Christmas.